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SIEBERT 

The  Exodus  of  the  Loyalists  from 
Penobscot  to  Passanaquoddy 


Volume  XVIII 


Number  26 


The 

Ohio  State  University 

Bulletin 


THE  EXODUS  OF  THE  LOYALISTS 

from 
Penobscot  to  Passamaquoddy 


Interna  tigijatS^iaaou^ 


April,    1914 


PUBUSHED   BY   THE    UNIVERSITY   AT   COIvUMBUS 

Entered  as  second-class  matter  Noveiiiber  17,  1905,  at  the  postoffice 
at  Columbus,  Ohio,  under  Act  of  Congress,  July  16,  1894 


THE  EXODUS  OF  THE  LOYALISTS 

from 
Penobscot  to   Passamaquoddy 
(With  Map) 


Bv 

WILBUR  H.  SIEBERT,  A.   M 

Professor  of  European  History 


Published  bv 


The  Ohio  State  University 
Cokimbus 

1914 


Copyrighted  19 14 

By 

WlI^BUR  H.   SlEBERT 


Contents 

I'AGE 

-^j      The  loss  of  old  l''ort  Powuall  b}-  the  Americans 7 

\^^     The  departure  of  Colonel  Thomas  Goldthwait 7 

The  project  of  establishing  a  new  military  post  on  the  Penob- 
scot    S 

'\        , 

Knox's  plan  for  a  lo3'alist   province   between  the  Penobscot 

and  the  St.  Croix S 

John   Nutting  and   the   British   expedition   to  establish   the 

A^                 post 9 

y       The  unsuccessful  siege  of  the  new  post  b}'  the  Americans. . .  12 

The  behavior  of  the  local  inhabitants  during  the  siege 13 

Removal  of  American  refugees  to  the  post 14 

The    missions    of   John    Nutting    and  Dr.    John    Caleff    to 

I{ngland 16 

The  constitution  proposed  for  the  loyalist  province 17 

The  plan  to  settle  the  Penobscot  country  with  loyalists  from 

New  York i  >S 

The  growth  of  the  refugee  population  at  Penobscot 19 

Refusal  of  the  Americans  to  give  up  the   Penobscot  country 

at  the  peace 19 

w        Removal  of  the  loyalists  from  Penobscot  to  Passamaquoddy  .  .  20 

V^        vSurveyor  General  Robert  Morse  at  Passamaquoddy    20 

Contention  between  Massachu.setts  and  the  loyalists  over  the 

Passamaquoddy  region 21 

The    loj^alist    settlement    on    St.  Andrews    Point,     and     its 

activities ..  23 

The  town  plot  and  grantees  of  vSt.  Andrews 24 

Church  and  school  at  St.   Andrews 25 

lixtent  of  the  grants  at    Passamaquoddy  to  the    Penobscot 

Associated  Loyalists;  the  .settlements  founded 27 

3 

[K  L-2] 


^ 


Page 

vSt.  George's  Town 28 

Settlements  formed   by   loyalists  from  localities  other  than 

Penobscot 27 

The  town  of  St.  Stephen 28 

Settlements  on  the  Digdeguash  in  the  Parish  of  St.  Patrick.  29 

Settlements  on  the  lower  Magaguadavic  and  the  L'Etang. . .  29 
The  settlement  of  the  Royal  Fencible  Americans  on  the  west 

side  of  the  lower  Magaguadavic 30 

The  settlement  of  Pennsylvania  Quakers  at  Pennfield    31 

The  occupation  of  the  small  harbors  east  of  Pennfield        ...  32 
The  settlement  of  the  Cape  Ann  Association  in  the  Parish  of 

St.  David 32 

The  loyalist  settlers  on  the  Island  of  Grand  Manan 33 

The  loyalist  settlers  on  the  Island  of  Campobello 35 

The  loyalist  occupants  and  settlers  of  Deer  Island ...       ....  35 

Loyalist  .settlers  of  the  smaller  i.slands 36 

The  census  of  1784;  occupations  of  the  .settlers 37 

Increase  of  the  population  to  1803 38 

Creation  of  the   district  court  and  the  townships  at 

Passamaquoddy 39 

The  boundary  dispute 4^ 

The  boundary  commission  and  its  decision    4o 

Contention  over  the  islands  in  Passamaquoddy  Bay 42 

The  island  commission  and  its  verdict 43 


The  Exodus  of  the  Loyalists  from 
Penobscot   to    Passamaquoddy 

In  September,  177S,  the  British  government  ordered  General 
Clinton  at  New  York  to  secure  pose  on  the  Penobscot  River  in 
Maine  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  a  province  to  which  loyal 
adherents  of  the  Crown  might  repair.'  An  earlier  post,  Fort 
Pownall,  which  had  occupied  the  bold,  rocky  promontory  at 
Cape  Jellison  at  the  mouth  of  the  Penobscot  was  no  longer  in 
existence,  having  been  dismantled  and  burned  by  the  militia 
under  Colonel  James  Cargill  in  July,  1774.  For  eleven  years 
previous  to  its  destruction,  the  old  colonial  fort  had  been  under 
the  comiuand  of  Colonel  Thomas  Goldthwait,  who  by  his  com- 
pliance with  an  order  from  General  Gage  permitted  a  detachment 
greatl}^  outnumbering  his  own  meagre  garrison  to  carry  off  the 
cannon  and  spare  arms  of  the  fort,  and  thus  incurred  the  censure 
of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts  Ba}^  the  loss  of  his 
command,  and  virtual  banishment.  Colonel  Goldthwait  deserves 
a  word  of  more  extended  notice  on  account  of  the  important  part 
he  took  in  settling  and  developing  the  Penobscot  \"alley.  W' hile 
in  command  of  Fort  Pownall,  he  was  appointed  agent  for  a  vast 
tract  of  land  belonging  to  the  Waldo  heirs  in  that  region. 
Later,  in  conjunction  with  Sir  Francis  Bernard,  then  governor 
of  the  province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  he  purchased  a  part  of  the 
Waldo  Patent  from  General  Jebediah  Preble,  and  appears  to 
have  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  settling  the  Penobscot  countr\' 
with  a  population  which  lie  estimated  at  "more  than  2,400  able 
men."- 

Colonel  Goldthwait  did  not  participate  in  establishing  the 
new  post  at  Penobscot,  but  remained  in  retirement  there  or  at 
Castine  until  July,  1779.  when  he  went  aboard  one  of  the  frig- 
ates of  the  British  fleet  that  entered  Penobscot  Ba}' to  lay  siege  to 
Bagaduce.      Taking  passage  on  this  vessel  for  New  York  after 

1.  Report  on  tlic  Am.    il/ss.    in  tlic  k'oy.    Inst,    of  (,'.     /hit.,    /,  2S4; 
Dorchester   Collection,  /,  No.    7. 

2.  Ale.  Hist.  Magazine,  /A,  23,  18S,  254,  258,  273,  363;  A',  94,  96. 

7 

1<:  L-[  :i  ] 


the  success  of  the  British  expedition,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
being  borne  to  his  destination  by  the  ship  that  carried  the  good 
tidings  to  Ch'nton.  It  may  be  added  that  Mr.  Goldthwait's  stay 
in  New  York  City  lasted  only  from  the  early  part  of  September  to 
December  23,  when  he  took  his  departure  to  England,  there  to 
remain  during  the  rest  of  his  life.' 

The  project  of  planting  a  British  force  on  the  coast  of  Maine 
had  long  been  cherished  by  William  Knox,  a  Georgia  loyalist, 
who  was  under-secretary  in  the  Colonial  Office  in  London.  Knox 
argued  that  it  would  serve  to  distract  the  attention  of  the 
Americans  from  operations  in  other  quarters,  that  as  a  military 
and  naval  base  it  would  protect  the  country  to  the  east  from 
attacks  by  land  and  sea,  and  last,  but  not  least,  that  it  would 
form  the  center  and  bulwark  for  a  new  province  for  the  friends 
of  government,  who  were  leaving  the  Colonies  in  ever  increas- 
ing numbers,  and  were  already  flooding  the  home  authorities 
with  insistent  claims  for  compensation.-  Lord  Germain,  Knox's 
superior  officer,  was  not  ea.sily  convinced  of  the  advantage  of  the 
project,  but  at  length  was  brought  around,  giving  what  was  evi- 
dentl}^  his  own  chief  reason  for  its  approval  when  he  wrote  to  Gov- 
ernor Haldimand  at  Quebec,  April  16,  1779,  that  if  the  Kennebec, 
or  even  the  Penobscot,  were  secured,  it  would  keep  open  direct 
commimication  between  the  Canadian  capital  and  New  York  at  all 
seasons,  and  so  do  away  with  the  tediousness  and  delays  in  corre- 
spondence by  way  of  Halifax.  However,  this  explanation  did 
not  satisfy  Haldimand,  who  still  doubted  the  efficacy  of  the 
measure.-^ 

Meanwhile,  Knox  was  anticipating  with  evident  zest  the  suc- 
cess of  an  expedition  yet  to  move  against  the  coast  of  Maine,  by 
arranging  the  details  of  the  province  that  was  intended  to  reach 
from  the  Penobscot  River  to  the  vSt.  Croix,  and  become  the  Ca- 
naan of  the  refugee  loyalists.  "Lying  between  New  England  and 
'New  Scotland'  (Nova  Scotia),  it  was  to  be  christened  New  Ire- 
land, perhaps,"  a^>  Batchelder  suggests  in  his  iliaminating  stud}' 

1.  Me.  Hist.  Jfagaziiie,  A',  95,  96. 

2.  Batchelder, yt)/;«  Nutting,    (Reprint  from   the  Proceedings  of  the 
Cambridge  Hist.  See.)  74,  72. 

3.  Can.  Arch.,  /SS^,  302,  327. 

8 


of  the  subject,^  "in  delicate  reference  to  Knox's  own  national- 
ity." With  manifest  appropriateness,  all  of  the  oflficials  of  the 
proposed  prov'ince  were  to  be  loj'alists  of  high  repute,  if  not,  in 
every  case,  of  experience  in  administrative  matters:  thus,  Thomas 
Hutchinson  was  to  be  governor,  Daniel  Leonard,  chief  justice, 
Dr.  John  CalefT,  one  of  the  leading  tories  of  Penobscot,  clerk  of 
the  council,  and  the  Reverend  Henry  Caner,  formerly  of  King's 
Chapel,  Boston,  bishop.  Although  Hutchinson  was  named  as  one 
of  the  beneficiaries  of  the  scheme,  he  wrote  from  London  that  it 
was  a  "most  preposterous  measure,"  and  that  but  few  people 
there  thought  well  of  it.  - 

However,  as  the  measure  already  had  the  necessary  official 
approval,  it  only  remained  to  decide  where  the  post  should  be 
located,  and  send  out  the  expedition  to  establish  it.  These  were 
important  matters,  to  be  sure,  and  the  advice  that  proved  con- 
clusive in  regard  to  them  came,  strangely  enough,  from  a 
carpenter  of  Cam])ridge,  Massachusetts,  who,  having  arrived  in 
England  in  the  fall  of  1777,  had  succeeded  in  ingratiating  him- 
self with  Under-vSecretary  Knox.  This  carpenter  of  surprising 
career  was  John  Nutting,  wdio  rendered  valuable  service  in  his 
trade  to  the  British  in  Boston  before  the  evacuation,  and  in  Halifax 
afterward.  In  the  latter  place,  especially,  he  had  found  oppor- 
tunity to  display  his  Yankee  resourcefulness  and  ability  as  "Mas- 
ter Carpenter  and  Superintendent  of  Mechanics,"  and,  despite 
the  lack  of  skilled  workmen,  had  performed  the  feat  of  erecting 
within  a  limited  time  "no  less  than  ten  large  block  houses,  each 
mounting  sixteen  guns."  In  England,  b}^  direct  application  to 
Lord  North,  he  secured  the  appointment  as  overseer  to  the  King's 
works  at  Landguard  Fort  in  East  Anglia.  His  isolation  at  this 
rather  remote  point  on  the  coast  of  the  North  Sea  did  not  prevent 
his  visiting  London  occasionally,  or  keeping  himself  in  the  recol- 
lection and  esteem  of  his  patron  of  the  Colonial  Office.  So  it 
came  about  that  he  was  called  into  consultation  concerning  the 
proposed  expedition  to  the  Maine  coast.  As  Mr.  Nutting  had 
invested  some  years  before  in  shore  lots  in  what  is  now  Castine, 
across    Penobscot  Bay  and  up  the  Bagaduce  River,  he  must  have 

r.     Batchelder,yo//«  Nutting,  74,  75. 

2.     Hutchinson,  Piaiy  and  Letters,  II,  21S,  290,  291. 


l)eeii  aware  of  the  tjatural  strength  and  well-recognized  strategic 
advantages  of  that  locality.  WHien,  therefore,  he  suggested  Pe- 
nobscot as  the  best  site  for  the  new  post,  his  qualit}'  of  "uncommon 
Loyalt}-,"  for  which  he  had  received  deserved  commendation  in 
Halifax,  was  not  being  sacrificed  to  his  self-interest,  although  the 
happy  blend  of  the  two  must  have  pleased  him  in  no  small  degree. 
His  suggestion  was  adopted  by  the  King's  ministers,  and  Nutting 
was  ordered  to  London  to  carry  Germain's  despatches  to  Clinton 
at  New  York,  and  accordingly  set  sail  early  in  September,  1778. 
A  fortnight  out,  his  vessel,  the  government  mail  packet  Harriet, 
was  overtaken  b}-  an  American  privateer,  the  Veyigeancc,  and 
Nutting,  rid  of  his  despatches  which  he  sunk  in  the  sea,  but 
wounded  in  four  places  as  he  later  testified,  was  taken  prisoner 
with  the  other  people  on  his  ship.  In  less  than  two  months, 
however,  the  King's  messenger  was  again  in  London,  having 
had  the  good  fortune  to  be  exchanged.' 

Undaunted,  Mr.  Nutting  undertook  a  second  voyage  in  Jan- 
uary of  the  next  year,  and  after  fourteen  weeks  on  the  ocean  was 
able  to  hand  detailed  instructions  to  Clinton.-  In  compliance 
with  these  orders,  the  latter  directed  Brigadier  General  McLean 
at  Halifax  to  carr^'  into  elTect  the  plan  of  fortifying  a  post  on 
Penobscot  River,  and  instructed  him  to  prepare  materials  for  a 
respectable  work  capable  of  accommodating  three  hundred  or 
four  hundred  men.  McLean  was  unable  to  comply  fully  with 
Clinton's  instructions  concerning  the  troops  to  be  taken,  but  he 
made  such  substitutions  as  were  necessary,  and  set  out  on  the 
expedition  at  the  end  of  May,  1779.  He  was  accompanied  by 
four  hundred  and  forty  men  of  the  74th  Regiment  under  Lieu- 
tenant Campbell,  and  two  hundred  of  the  82nd  under  Major  Craig, 
his  convoy  comprising  four  men-of-war  under  Captain  Andrew 
Barkley  and  the  flagship  Albany  under  Captain  Henry  Mowatt. 
He  also  took  with  him  stores  for  nine  hundred  men,  which  would  be 
the  total  number  when  the  engineers  .should  be  included.  Nutting, 
who  was  to  be  employed  as  overseer  of  carpenters  in  building  the 
fort,  acted  as  pilot.  On  June  13,  the  expedition  arrived  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Penokscot,   and  after  reconnoitering  the   river  for 

1.  Batchelder,  John  Xnfliiig^  1^-11- 

2.  Ibid.,   77,  78. 


several  da\s,  the  troops  were  disembarked  on  the  little  neck  of 
land  which  had  ijeen  chosen  for  the  fort.  The  most  advanta- 
geous part  of  the  peninsula  being  wooded,  some  time  was  spent  in 
clearing  it.  There  was  also  .some  difficult}'  in  landing  the  ])ro- 
visions,  which  had  to  be  rolled  uj)  a  steep  hill.  These  prelimi- 
naries were  not  completed  until  July  2,  when  the  work  on  the 
fort  began.' 

Contact  with  the  local  inhabitants  di.sclosed  the  fact,  as 
McL,ean  wrote  Clinton,  that  they  "had  been  artfull>'  led  to  believe 
that  His  Majesty's  troops  were  accti-stomed  to  plunder  and  treat 
the  Country  where  their  operations  led  them  with  the  greatest 
inhumanity."  To  remove  that  prejudice,  the  leaders  of  the 
expedition  issued  a  proclamation  extending  clemenc}'  to  all  who 
would  take  the  oath  of  allegiance.  This  procedure  so  far  restored 
confidence  that  about  five  hundred  persons  sub.scribed  to  the  oath 
in  the  limited  time  allo«u'ed,  although  McLeau  wrote  that  the 
number  would  have  been  considerably  increased  if  he  had  been 
able  to  send  to  "some  distant  settlements  the  Inhabitants  of  which 
requested  that  indulgence  from  the  impossibility'  of  all  attending 
the  places  appointed."-  The  testimony  of  Colonel  John  Allen, 
the  American  superintendent  of  Indians  in  the  Eastern  Depart- 
ment, is  of  a  confirmatory  character.  In  a  letter  written  at 
Machias,  Maine,  July  16,  1779,  he  states  that  most  of  the  inhabit- 
ants at  Penobscot  had  submitted  and  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  King  after  the  capture  of  that  place  by  the  English.  But 
his  condemnation  is  partictilarly  reserved  for  those  east  of  the 
Penobscot,  who  had  gone  a  distance  to  acknowledge  themselves 
British  subjects,  including  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  people  at  l^nion 
River,  Nashkeag,  and  Deer  Island,  and  two  or  three  at  French- 
man's Bay,  and  Goldsborough.-'  Dr.  Caleff  tells  us  that  about 
a  hundred  of  those  who  were  well  disposed  showed  their  good 
will  by  coming  in  on  July  i9  with  their  captain,  John  Perkins, 
and  helping  three  days  to  clear  the  ground  in  front  of  the  fort.'* 

1.  Report  07i  the  Am.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst,  of  C.  /hit.,  /,  440,  441, 
458;  Batchelder,  John  Nuttitig,  78;  Report  011  the  .  hii.  Mss.  in  the  Roy. 
Inst,  of  G.  Brit.,  //,   14. 

2.  Ibid.,  /,  458. 

3.  St.  Croix  Courier  series,  L. 

4.  Caleff,  Sieo;e  of  Penol^scot  (IMs.  in  Harv.  University  Library); 
Batchelder, /cV/;/  Xuttin^,  79\  St.  Croi.x-  Courier  series,  LI. 


McLean  explained  that  the  attitude  of  the  people  to  the  east  of 
Boston,  who  were  in  want  and  distress,  seemed  in  general  friendly, 
but  that  they  were  prevented  from  any  marked  demonstration  by 
the  threats  of  the  enemy.  Their  open  allegiance,  he  thought, 
could  be  won  only  when  thej^  should  be  furnished  a  force  strong 
enough  to  afford  them  complete  protection  in  their  persons  and 
property.  However,  he  had  to  admit  the  existence  of  a  division 
of  sentiment  among  the  inhabitants,  remarking  that  "numbers 
of  young  men  of  the  country  had  gone  westward,  and  attempts 
have  been  made  to  raise  the  people,  tho  hitherto  without 
success."^  The  force  under  McLean's  command  was  certainly 
not  large  enough  to  inspire  the  remaining  population  with 
feelings  of  safety  and  reviving  loyalty;  but,  small  as  it  was,  it 
was  nevertheless  reduced  by  the  withdrawal  of  Captain 
Barkley  with  four  of  his  warships  in  order  to  shield  the  coast  of 
Nova  Scotia  against  the  threatening  presence  of  nine  American 
vessels,  wdiich  had  recently  been  sighted  in  the  offing.  Thus, 
only  the  Albany  was  left  to  stand  guard  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Penobscot,  the  solitar}^  ship  being  in  turn  protected  by  a  battery 
erected  for  that  purpose. 

The  fort  was  not  yet  half  completed  when  the  American  fleet 
"to  the  number  of  thirt^^-seven  sail  of  all  sizes,"  with  2,600 
troops  aboard,  traversed  Penobscot  Bay,  and  laid  siege  to  the 
place.  On  August  7,  according  to  Caleff,  the  Americans 
scoured  the  country  round  for  the  loyal  inhabitants,  destroj-ed 
their  movables,  killed  their  cattle  for  meat,  and,  having  captured 
a  number  of  persons,  imprisoned  them  aboard  shij:).-  For  three 
weeks,  McL,ean  and  his  men  held  out,  relief  from  Halifax  failing 
to  put  in  an  appearance.  On  the  morning  of  August  14,  a  party 
reconnoitering  without  the  fort  discovered  that  the  Americans 
had  abandoned  some  works  which  they  had  constructed,  in  their 
attempt  to  avoid  a  clash  with  the  King's  fleet,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Commodore  Sir  George  Collier,  which  had  opportuneh' 
arrived  from  New  York.  In  desperation,  the  American  fleet  sailed 
up  the  Penobscot  River,  where  the  loyal  inhabitants  were  released, 
and  the  shipping  was  .set  on  fire,  while  the  enem3''s  troops  retreat- 

1.  Report  of  the  Ant.  Mss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst,  of  G .  Brit.,  /,  460,  462. 

2.  St.  Croix  Courier  series,  LI  . 

12 


ed  in  various  directions  without  oi)])Osition.'  Thus,  CoUier's 
coming  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  the  Americans'  vessels  and 
the  dispersal  of  their  land  forces."-'  Among  the  ships  that  went 
up  in  flames  on  the  Penobscot  flats  was  the  privateer  [  'cnoeance, 
to  which  Mr.  Nutting  owed  his  capture  when  first  he  sailed  from 
England  with  Germain's  despatches  for  Clinton.-' 

No  doubt  some  of  the  local  inhabitants  were  recreant  to 
their  oath  of  allegiance.  If  so,  McL,ean  excused  it  on  the  score 
that  they  had  been  compelled  to  join  the  eneni}';  but  he  insisted 
that  most  of  them  had  been  employed  in  working  for  the  Ameri- 
cans, "tho,"  he  added,  "some  of  them  were  in  arms."  Learning 
that  a  number  of  these  people  had  withdrawn  from  their  habita- 
tions with  the  intention  of  going  to  the  westward,  on  account  of 
the  fear  of  the  resentment  of  the  Briti.sh,  McLean  issued  a  new 
proclamation  in  order  to  reassure  them  and  "prevent  the  breaking 
up  of  the  settlement."^  Collier,  however,  was  more  severe  in  his 
judgment  of  the  recent  conduct  of  the  inhabitants.  In  a  letter 
to  Clinton,  he  denounced  them  as  rebels  who  took  an  oath  to  the 
King  one  day  and  another  to  the  Congress  the  next,  and  a.sserted 
that  all  had  "a.ssisted  the  rebels  in  everything  they  could  during 
the  siege. "^'  It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  denunciation  of 
Commodore  Collier  was  too  sweeping  in  its  character.  It  could 
.scarcely  have  been  the  case  that  those  who  placed  themselves 
under  the  protection  of  the  British  post,  and  whose  need  of  supplies 
was  causing  a  shortage  of  provisions,  had  been  guilty  of  the  sort 
of  double  dealing  charged  against  all  the  inhabitants  b}^  the  preju- 
diced Commodore.^  Moreover,  Colonel  Thomas  Goldth wait,  who 
had  settled  a  large  number  of  people  in  the  Penobscot  region, 
wrote  to  Clinton,  October  2,  1779,  urging  the  continued  impor- 
tance of  the  post  to  the  Crown:  "If  the  present  arrangement  of 
his  Majesty'stroops  won't  permit  of  a  reinforcement  there,  at  this 
time,"  sa3\s  the  refugee's  letter,  "I  myself  will  undertake  torai.se 

1.  .sy.  Croix  Courier,  series  L.  I. 

2.  Report  on  the  Am.  /Ifss.  i)i  the  Roy.  Inst,  of  C .   Brit.,  II,    15,   i6,- 
Coltects.  Me.  Hist.  Sac.,  Series  If,  I'.  /,  391,  392. 

3  Batchelder,  Joh//  A'littiiio-,  So. 

4  Report  of  the  Am.  Jlsy.  in  the  Roy.  Inst,  of  C  Brit.,  II,  17. 

5  Ibid. 

6  //>/</.,  66. 


a  Battalion  out  of  the  militia  of  that  country,  which  notwithstand- 
ing their  seeming  delinquency  in  their  late  unhappy  situation, 
I'll  pledge  myself  for  it,  that  they  will  make  as  good  subjects  as 
an}'  the  King  has  got.  'Twas  I,  principally,  yt  settled  them  in 
that  country;  I  commanded  them,  and  I  fully  know  their  princi- 
ples, and  have  estate  enough  to  carry  into  execution  what  I  yiro- 
pose.""^ 

Even  while  the  loyalt\-  of  these  people  was  being  thus  favor- 
ably or  unfavorably  commented  tipon,  many  friends  of  govern- 
ment were  removing  to  this  haven  of  refuge.  McLean,  who 
''eturned  to  Halifax  at  the  close  of  November,  1779,  wrote  to 
Clinton  from  that  place  that  a  considerable  number  of  inhabitants 
had  taken  refuge  on  the  peninsula,  that  their  distressed  situation 
rendered  it  necessary  that  they  be  supplied  with  provisions  from 
the  King's  stores,  and  that  he  proposed  sending  a  further  supply 
by  the  Albany  to  complete  their  stock  to  the  end  of  May.^  Be- 
sides the  people  who  were  coming  in  from  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, others  were  arriving  from  localities  farther  removed 
both  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts.  One  such  party  came  from 
Falmouth  under  the  guidance  of  a  tory  named  Baum,  who  was 
afterwards  captured  by  the  Americans,  tried  by  a  court-martial 
presided  over  by  Major  Burton,  condemned  to  death,  and  executed 
by  order  of  General  Wadsworth.  It  was  in  revenge  for  this  ex- 
ecution that  Wadsworth  and  Burton  were  captured  by  a  detach- 
ment from  Penobscot,  and  imprisoned  there  until  they  made  their 
escape,  June  15,  1781.^  Among  the  loyalists  from  Falmouth  who 
early  sought  protection  at  the  post  were  Captain  Jeremiah  Pote 
and  his  two  sons-in-law,  Robert  Pagan  and  Thomas  Wyer.^ 
Pagan  did  not  go  directly  to  Penobscot,  but  in  February,  1776, 
sailed  with  his  family  for  Barbadoes.  On  his  rettirn,  he  settled 
in  the  growing  Penobscot  colony,  where,  with  two  brothers,  he 
purchased  dwelling  houses  from  Lieutenant  Colonel  Campbell  in 
1 78 1.'''    Moses  Gerrish  of  Newbury,   Massachusetts,   who  was    a 

1.  Rcpoi  t  oil  the  A)ii.  iMss.  in  the  Roy.  /)ist.  ofG.  Brit.,  I/,  20,  45. 

2.  Ibid,  66. 

3.  Report  of  the  Am,    J/ss.    iti  tlie  Roy.  Iiixt.  of  (• .  Urit.,  If,  258; 
vSabine,  Am.  Loyalids,  1847,148,  626. 

4.  Aeadiensis,  July,  1903,  175. 

5.  Ibid.,  ]u\y,  igoj,  22T,;  See.  Rep.,  Jlureau  of  .Irehiies,   Out.,   PI.  /, 
304  307;  Sabine,  Am.  Loyallists,  502. 

14 


graduate  of  Harvard  College,  and  was  stationed  at  Penobscot  as 
an  officer  in  the  commissary  department,  remained  there  until  the 
post  was  evacuated  by  the  British  forces.'  Colin  Cam])bell,  an- 
other loN'alist,  acted  as  assistant  commissary.'-'  The  garrison 
found  its  surgeon,  and  for  a  while  its  chaplain,  in  I)r  John  Caleff, 
a  former  resident  of  Ipswich,  who  had  served  as  a  member  of  the 
Massachu-setts  legislature,  but  had  sought  .shelter  at  the  po.st 
before  the  siege. '^  For  a  .sea.son,  Caleff  was  also  employed  as 
inspector  at  Penobscot.  On  his  departure  for  PvUgiand  in  May, 
1780,  he  was  succeeded  in  this  position  by  Robert  Pagan. ^  John 
Jones  of  Pownalborough  (now  Dresden),  Maine,  escaped  from 
Boston  jail,  and  arrived  at  Quebec  at  the  close  of  August,  1779.. 
There  he  joined  Colonel  Rogers'  regiment,  receiving  a  commis- 
sion as  captain,  and  was  .sent  to  Penobscot.  From  that  point  he 
engaged  in  forays  against  the  Americans  at  the  head  of  acompan\- 
kown  as  "Jones'  Rangers."  His  swarth}^  complexion  gained  for 
him  the  nickname  of  "Black  Jones"'''  Simeon  Baxter,  the  super- 
intendent of  hospital  .stores  in  Bo.ston,  was  another  oj"  those  whose 
loyalty  was  too  active  to  be  tolerated  by  the  revolutionists.  He 
was,  therefore,  condemned  to  be  incarcerated  in  the  jail  ait  Worces- 
ter, but  breaking  away,  he  did  not  regard  himself. as-beyond  the 
reach  of  danger  until  he  had  gained  the  shelter  of,  FoTt, George.*^ 
John  Long,  a  native  of  Nantucket,  also  resorted  .thither  probably 
as  early  as  the  year  1779.  In  his  new  retreat 'he  made  him.self 
u.seful  by  securing  intelligence  for  Captain  Mowatt,  but  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy.  However,  he  succeeded  in  making  his 
escape,  and  during  the  remainder  of  the  war  commanded  a  priva- 
teer belonging  to  the  Pagan  brother.s.'_  Another  Massachusetts 
tory  who  joined  the  contingent  at  Penobscot  in' 1779  was  Jame.s 
Symons  of  Union  River.  Like  most  of  the  other  refugees  who 
settled  within  the  .shadow  of  the  post,   he  reniained  there  until 

1.  Coll.  N.  B.  Hist,  Soc,  I,  No ^3,  ■^^\  Acadifitsis,  July  1906,  170.. 

2.  Repo)i ou  the  Ain.  Mss.  in  tlir'Rdy.  inst.  of  G.-'Brit.,  ffl,   122,   132: 
Acadiensis,  ]\i\y,  1907,277-279.     -  .N.-. :.     '       ..  '  : 

-K.  Coll. Me.  Hist.  Sac., Series  //,  Vol.  I.  392. 

4.  Report  oil  tlie  Aut.  Ms's.^^'n-the^Roy/  hist.  0/  (,'.  h'rit.J//,  229.  ,^,  ^i^-sfiir'^' 

5.  .-^/A^i/ZdV/.w^,  July,  1907^276^  ■7'^'  '';''■'•'  ,      ■  ,..,^;C0^     ■' 

6.  Audit  Office  ClaihT's^,'^Xir,'4:f:'lni  tU^' PiilDlic  Record  Office,  I)on^'n.) 

7.  See.  Report .  /!/n\  ii/'Arelitz;es,'07i't.v/'t-B,  315-3^7-     ->?•'''>' "^ 

[K  L-i] 


"^'<<'  the  peace. ^    Meantime,   Niitling  "«-as  serving  as  overseer  of  the 

-  -works  with  such  satisfaction  t6  Colonel  Campbell,  who  was  then 
in  command  of  the  fort,  that  the' latter  "in  consideration  of  his 

■.V  Attachment  to  His  Majesty's  Government,"  made  at  "Gratuitous 

Grant"  to  Mrs.  Nutting  of  "a  lotiof  land  to  settle  upon 

on  the  Nj  E.   side  of  y  Road  Leading' to- Fort  George,  formerly- 
r     the  Property  of  Joseph  Pirkins  now  in  Rebbelion."     Upon  this 
,    lot  the  overseer  built  him -a  house,  which  he  valued  at  £,\  50.'-^ 
Thus,  a  population  of  loyalists  was  gathering  within  the  bound- 
aries of  the  proposed  province  of  New  Ireland. 

■    This  development  may  have  had  something  to  do  with   Nut- 

-  ting's  departure! for  England  in  the  spring  of  1780,  by  the  partic- 
ular advic'e  and  recommendation,  of .  General  McLean.  At  any 
rate,  soon  after  hisarrival  in  London,' Nu^ttingannounced  that  he 

t    had'  laid  a -pilan-before'' Lord  George' Germain  which,  if  put  into 

ij,     execution;  would  prove  "of  the  greatesfUtility  to  Gov^ernment." 

The  concerns  of  the  prospective  province  were  .certainly  receiving 

■  ^    a  great  deal  of  attention  at  this  time  a^mo^g  the    loyalists  at    Pe- 

.  inobscot,  for;  in  May  of  the  year  named  above,  they  sent  Dr.  Caleff 
to  England  to  do  what  he  could- toward  getting  the  British  author- 
ities to  fix  upon  the  River  Penobscot  asthe  dividing  line  betw^een 

-  them.selves  and  the  United  States.^ 

■  ■    .        While  the  object  of  Mr.  ^Nutting's  journey    is  less  clear   by 
;    reason  of  the  lack  of  documentary   proofs;  the  fact  that  he  now 

■    -i'.  crossed  the  ocean  at  what  was  virtually  the  request  of  McLean,  to 
-whom  had  been  entrusted  the 'first  step  towards  erecting  a  loyalist 
•^    province  in  eastern  Maine,    suggests   stronglj^"  that   the    present 
i.        mission    of  the  Ovenseer  of  Works  was  in  connection    with    the 
carfj'ihg  into  effect  of  the  second   and  principal  part  of  the   pro- 
gramme, namely,   the'  establishment  of' the  province  itself.     It 
■w'as  certainly  more  -than  a  m^re  coincidence   that  the  whole  New 
•Ireland   scheme   received  a  fresh' impetus  soon  after    Nutting's 
arrival  in  London.    >On' August  7,  1780,  Germain  wrote  to  Knox 
expressing  the  hope  that  New  Ireland  still  eniplo3'ed  his  thoughts, 

1.  Sec.  Report,  Bur.  of  Archives,  Out.,  PI.  /,  323,  324. 

2.  Batcheldei  ,yi9/;«  Nu/fing,  82. 

3.  fbid.,  'Ra.\.ch^\di&T,Joh)i  Nutting,  82,816;  Report  on  the  Am.  Mss.  inthe 
Roy.  Inst,  of  G .  Brit.,  II,  118,  420;  ///,  229;  Ganong,  Eivl.  of  the  Bound- 
aries of  A'.  B.,  260;     Raymond,  Winsloiv  Papers,  25b. 

16 


that  he  was  more  and  more  inclined  to  prefer  Ohver  (the  ex-chief 
justice  of  Massachusetts  Baj^)  for  the  governorship,  and  that  he 
wished  they  might  "prepare  some  plan  for  the  consideration  of 
the  Cabinet."  No  sooner  said  than  done,  the  plan  was  produced 
with  astonishing  promptness.  Its  form  was  thatof  a  constitution 
for  the  new  province,  concerning  which  Germain  wrote  on 
August  nth:  ''The  King  approves  the  p/afi — likes  Oliver  for 
Governor,  so  it  may  be  offered  him.  He  approves  Leonard  for 
Chief  Justice."' 

The  instrument,  thus  approved,  placed  the  province  abso- 
lutely under  the  control  of  the  British  Parliament.  On  acquiring 
land,  whether  by  inheritance,  purchase,  or  grant  from  the  Crown, 
every  landlord  had  to  declare  his  allegiance  to  the  King  in  his 
Parliament.  There  was  to  be,  of  course,  a  governor  and  a  coun- 
cil, but  no  elective  assembly  for  the  time  being.  This  omission 
was  obviously  intended  as  a  means  of  fore.stalling  any  disposition 
of  the  people  to  republicanism.  There  was,  however,  to  be  a 
middle  branch  of  the  legislature,  of.  which  the  members  were  to 
be  appointed  by  the  Crown  for  life,  but  also  subject  to  suspension 
or  removal  by  royal  authority.  Thqse  legislators  might  have 
conferred  upon  them  titles,  emoluments^  or  both.  The  traditions 
of  aristocracy'  were  to  be  further  secured  by  the  granting  of  land 
in  large  tracts,  thus  providing  at  once  for  great  landlords  and  a 
tenantry.  The  Church  of  England  was  to  be  the  established 
church,  and  the  governor,  the  highest  judge  in  the  ecclesiastical 
court,  with  the  additional  function  of  filling  all  benefices.  The 
power  of  ordination  was  to  be  vested  in  a  vicar-getreral,  the  way 
being  thus  opened  for  a  bishop.  The  establishment  of  schools 
was  left  wholly  unprovided  for.'^  Such  was  the  constitution  of 
New  Ireland,  the  purpose  of  which,  according  to  that  thorough- 
going loyalist,  the  Reverend  William  Walter,  was  by  its  "liberal- 
ity" to  show  to  the  American  Provinces  "the  great  advantages  of 
being  a  portion  of  the  Empire  and  living  under  the  protection  of 
the  British  Government."^  That  these  advantages  remained  im- 
tested  insofar  as  New  Ireland  was  concerned  was  primarily  due  to 

1.  Batch  eld  er,  yy//»  Abutting,  86,  87. 

2.  Coll.  Me.  Hist.  Soc.,  Series  ii,  Vol.  /,  395,  396;  Bancroft,  Hist,  of  the 
LK  S.,  X,  368. 

3.  Kaymond,  Hist.  0/ the  A'iz'er  St.  Jolin,  2gi. 

17 


Attorney  General  Wedderburn,  who  held  that  the  territorial 
possessions  of  Massachusetts  extended  to  the  western  Ijoundary 
of  Nova  Scotia,  and  that  the  charters  of  both  provinces  precluded 
a  new  one  from  being  interposed  between  them.  ^ 

Although  this  opinion  prevailed,  the  plan  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  abandoned  b}'  its  originators,  for  in  the  winter  of  1781 
Germain  "urged  upon  Clinton  the  ministrj-'s  favorite  scheme  for 
the  disposition  of  the  throngs  of  Tories  at  New  York:  'Man\^ 
are  desirous  of  being  settled  in  the  covmtry  about  Penobscot  and, 
as  it  is  proposed  to  settle  that  countr3^  and  this  appears  to  be  a 
cheap  mtthod  of  disposing  of  these  loxalists,  it  is  wished  you 
would  encourage  them  to  go  there  under  the  protection  of  the 
Associated  Refugees,  and  assure  them  that  a  civil  government 
will  follow  them  in  due  time;  for  I  hope,  in  the  course  of  the  sum- 
mer, the  admiral  and  you  will  be  able  to  spare  a  force  sufficient  to 
effect  an  establishment  at  Casco  Bay,  and  reduce  that  country  to 
the  King's  obedience.'"  '-' 

^Massachusetts,  of  course,  wanted  "the  viperine  nest  ^t 
Penobscot"  suppressed,  and  appealed  feelingly  from  time  to  time 
to  the  French  and  to  Washington  to  strike  the  decisive  blow.  In 
truth,  her  authority  had  been  so  far  encroached  upon  by  the 
enemy  that  she  was  no  longer  able  to  collect  taxes  or  contribu- 
tions from  any  place  to  the  eastward  of  their  stronghold.  The 
garrison  there  was  ever  on  the  alert,  and  improved  the  defences 
of  the  post  until  it  was  declared  by  the  Commander-in-chief  of 
the  Continental  forces  tb^be  "the  most  regularly  constructed  and 
best  finished  of  an\-  in  America."  These  excellent  ramparts 
sheltered  a  throng  of  lo^-alists  and  their  families,  while  nearby  a 
refugee  settlement  grew  up,  which  by  the  end  of  the  war  con- 
sisted of  thirty-five  houses  (a  few  of  two. stories),  supplemented 
by  the  barest  utilities  in  the  form  of  three  wharves  and  two 
stores.-' 

It  remained  to  be  .seen  whether  this  outpost  of  loyalism 
would  survive  the  underctuTents  of  diplomacy-  during  the  nego- 

1.  Coll.  Me.  Hist.  .Soc,  Series  //,  Vcl.  /,  ^,96;  Batchelder,  h/iN  Xiilling, 
87. 

2.  Batchelder, /(;//«  iVii/lJfi_o-,  86.  •   '     ■"  ••    ' 

3.  Ihid.,  S4;  vSabiiie,  A>//.  Loyalisls,  10;  .Vass.  ArchiveSi    V.   145,  377; 
Coif.  Me.  Hist.  Soc.,  Series  II.  Vol.  /,  400. 

18 


tiations  for  peace,  as  it  had  weathered  the  storms  of  war.  If  so, 
it  might  still  become  the  capital  of  a  real  province  of  New  Ireland, 
and  by  the  favor  of  the  authorities  secure  a  population  of  some 
thousands  out  of  hand  from  among  the  swarms  of  loyalists  that 
had  been  gathering  for  years  at  New  York.  In  the  conferences 
of  the  peace  commissioners  England  contended  that  the  frontier 
of  Mas.sachusetts  extended  no  farther  than  Penol)scot  Bay:  she 
gave  it  out  that  she  wanted  the  territor\-  to  the  eastward  "for 
masts."  But  John  Adams,  who  was  a  member  of  the  board  of 
treaty  commissioners,  was  a  Massachusetts  man,  and  was  thor- 
oughly conversant  with  conditions  at  Penobscot.  He  pertinently 
remarked  to  Count  Vergennes,  while  the  contention  was  in  prog- 
ress,^ that  "it  was  not  masts,  but  Tories,  that  again  made  the 
difficulty,"  and  that  "Some  of  them  claimed  lands  in  that  terri- 
tory, and  others  hoped  for  grants  there,"  not  forgetting  to  add 
that  "the  grant  of  Nova  Scotia  by  James  I  to  Sir  William  AJex.- 
ander,  bounoed  it  on  the  St.  Croix."  Adams  was  no  less  po.sith:e 
when  face  to  face  with  the  English  commissioner,  Mr.  Oswald.^ 
and  told  him  plainly  that  he  "must  lend  all  his  thoughts  to  con- 
vince and  persuade  his  court  to  give  up"  the  disputed  region, 
else  "the  whole  negotiations  would  be  broken  off.'"-  The  un- 
jnelding  character  of  the  man  from  Massachusetts  was  confirmed 
by  Lord  Shelburne,  who  was  constrained  to  report  to  the  House 
of  Lords  that  he  "had  but  the  alternative  either  to  accept  the 
terms  propo.sed  or  to  continue  the  war."-'  Mr.  Secretary  Knox, 
in  the  bitterness  of  his  personal  disappointment  over  the  final 
collapse  of  his  budding  province,  gratified  his  own  animosities  b\^ 
alleging  that  Penobscot  would  never  have  been  evacuated  at  all 
had  it  not  been  for  the  jealousy  of  Wedderburn  and  the  igno- 
rance of  Shelburne.* 

The  provi.sional  articles  of  peace  were  agreed  to  at  the  end  of 
November,  1782.  It  was  not  until  the  middle  of  the  following 
June  that  Carleton  wrote  to  Governor  Parr,  of  Nova  Scotia,  that 
two  ships  had  been  sent  to  Penobscot  to  remove  such  persons  as 


1.  November  10,  1782. 

2.  Adams,  Diary,  under  the  dates  Nov.  10,  and  18;  Coll.  Me.  //is/. 
Scries  //,  Vol.  /,  396,  397. 

3.  Coll.  Me.  //isl.  Soe,,  .Series  //,    I'ol.  /,  397. 

4.  Batchelder,  yc)//;/  iV//l/i)ii;\  94. 

19 


Soe. 


should  choose  to  go  to  his  province.^  Three  weeks  later,  it  was 
reported  that  some  people  of  Machias,  Maine,  had  "moved  to  Pas- 

samaquoddy and  possessed  themselves  of  lands  between 

the  river  St.  Croix  and  the  River  Scoodie  [Scoodiac].'"''  About 
the  middle  of  August,  Parr  wrote  to  Brigadier  General  Fox  at 
Halifax  concerning  the  rumored  encroachments  east  of  the  St. 
Croix,  encroachments  made,  he  said,  under  pretense  that  the 
lands  between  that  river  and  the  Scoodiac  belonged  to  Massa- 
chusetts. He  informed  General  Fox  that  the  invaded  lands  were 
"intended  chiefly  for  the  immediate  settlement  of  part  of  the  Pro- 
vincial disbanded  troops  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  refugee  fami- 
lies from  Penobscot,"  and  therefore  suggested  that  an  armed 
detachment  be  sent  there  to  protect  the  boundary.-'  Thus,  before 
the  definitive  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  (September  3,  1783),  a 
new  boundary  dispute  had  emerged,  in  which  the  luckless  Penob- 
scot loyalists  were  involved  as  before.  This  their  agents  discov- 
ered when  they  arrived  at  Passamaquoddy  at  the  close  of  August, 
for  they  were  there  greeted  by  a  letter  from  the  authorities  at 
Boston,  warning  them  not  to  form  a  settlement  in  the  disputed 
region.  The  agents  communicated  this  news  to  Parr,  with  the 
further  information  that  the  transports  intended  to  convey  their 
people  to  Passamaquoddy  had  already  arrived  at  Penobscot,  news 
suggesting  that  the  loyalists  would  soon  be  at  their  destination 
and  take  possession.* 

Meantime,  Robert  Morse,  the  chief  engineer,  had  received 
instructions  to  proceed  to  Passamaquoddy  and  report  on  the  situa- 
tion there.  He  soon  learned  of  the  alleged  encroachments,  and 
wrote  to  Carleton,  August  15,  1783,  of  the  difficulties  that  might 
arise  about  the  boundary  river,  explaining  that  the  name  St.  Croix 
had  been  indiscriminately  applied  to  the  three  rivers  which  empty 
into  Passamaquoddy  Bay,  and  that  while  the  westernmost  had 
been  the  old  boundary  between  Maine  and  Nova  Scotia,  the  middle 
and  by  far  themo.st  important  one  was  meant  for  the  new  bound- 
ary, thus  opening  the  way   for  dispute.''      Early  in  September, 

1.  Report  on  the  A>n.  iMss.  in  the  Roy.  Inst,  of  G.  Brit.,  Il\  276. 

2.  Ibid.,  210. 

3.  Ibid. 

4.  Ibid. 

5.  Ibid.,  2S0. 

20 


Morse  reached  Pa.^samaquoddy,!  in  time,  .ats-he  explained  to  Carle-  » 

ton,    "to    point    out  to  the    surveyors   employed   in  laying   but  i:  — 

different  towns,  and.  the  land.s  adjoining,  such  spots •  as  appeared     '    -     -     •    > 

proper  to  be  reserved  for  the  use  of  Government,  and  future 
protection  of  the  country."^  •:  He  was  detained  there  eight  days 
before  he  was  able  to  sail  for  St.  John's  River.  On  November  i, 
he  again  wrote  the  Commander-in-chief  at  New  York  to  say  that 
the  town  laid  out  for  the  people  i from  Penobscot  was  "omSt; 
Andrew's  point — their  lands  extending  up  the  east  side  of  the 
River  Scodiac."  This  position  he  conceived  to  be  "totally  out 
of  dispute,"  and  though  it  was  contested,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
the  country  to  the  east  of  the  Scodiac  was  adjudged  to  be  part  of 
Novia  Scotia  and  the  settlers  remained  in  posse.ssion.  Morse  was 
equally  correct  in  asserting  that  the  stream  called  the  St.  Croix 
by  the  Ma.s.sachusetts  people  and  alleged  by  them  to  be  the  true 
boundary  was  in  fact  the  "Majiggaducey"  ( Magaguadavic ) , 
which  he  declared  to  be  "quite  out  of  the  question."  Hence,  he 
urged  that  an  early  explanation  shouldxbe  required  of  the  author- 
ities of  Massachusetts,  "lest  the  unfortunate  people  from  Pen- 
ob.scot  should  be  again  disturbed,  or  befote  any  military  force 'is  -  :  ■ 
sent  there."  He-added  that  a  British  man-of-war  was  already'  " 
under  orders  to  proceed  to  Passamaquoddy.-    '     ^        (j 

A.t   Penobscot  the  \loyalists  had  formed  an  association  with  i 
Cajitain   Jeremiahs  Pote,    Robert:   Pagen,   and    a  third    member.   . 
whose  name  is  unknown,  las  agents  to  complete  arrangements  for 
the  removal  to  Passamaquoddy,     Many   of  the  associators  had  1 
already  gone   (about  October  i)  to  the  location  chosen  for  their 
new  settlement  to.  erect  houses,'^   and  had  evidentl}'  been  there 
about  three  weeks  when  Colonel  John :  Allan,'  the  agent  of  the  - 
Massachusetts  authorities,  arrived  on  the  scene,  only  to  find  the  • 
surveyors  exploring  the  rivers.and  preparing  to  lay  out  townships, 
while  a  number  of  settlers  were-  already  in  possession  of  St.  An- 
drew's Point.     Hel  remonstrated  with  the  surveyors,:  and, ^discov- 
ering one  of  them,  Zebedee  Jerry,  of  P'reetowri,  to  be  a  proeCribed  f ' 
refugee,    "cautioned  him  from  appearing  on  any  lands   of   the 

2.  Report  on  the  A»i.  Mss.  in  the  K'oy:  Ins.  of  (i.   Brit:  /]'.  280. 
I.     Ibid.  4^2. 

3.  The  London   Chronicle,    Mav    8,    1784;    St.    Croi.v  Courier  series, 
LXXIX. 


United  vStates  in  future,  as  he  certainly  would  be  made  a  prisoner, ' ' 
and  at  the  same  time  directed  the  Indians  "not  to  suffer  any 
British  subjects  to  pass  on  the  river  Passamaquoddy  on  such 
business  until  further  orders. ' '  In  obedience  to  their  instructions, 
the  Indians  soon  after  took  ca]^tive  the  loyalist,  Captain  (John) 
Jones,  of  Kennebec,  whom  they  found  marking  trees  on  the  river. 
Jones  was  placed  on  parole,  but  had  no  compunctions  a1)out  mak- 
ing his  escape  at  the  earliest  opportunity' 

Allan  was  further  disturbed  b}-  the  arrival  on  Octo])er  3  of 
two  large  transports  and  several  smaller  ves.sels  bringing  forty 
families  from  Bagaduce.  The  shijis  were  warned  not  to  land 
their  passengers,  but  nevertheless  did  so  a  few  days  later.  On 
the  17th  of  October,  Allan  visited  the  refugees  and  pointed  out  to 
them  what  he  con.sidered  to  be  their  precarious  situation  at  St. 
Andrew's.  In  reply,  they  disclaimed  any  intention  of  encroach- 
ing upon  American  .soil,  remindinghim  that  the}' had  been  landed 
where  they  were  by  the  King's  transports,  and  pra^-ing  that  they 
might  not  ])e  molested  imtil  .spring,  as  they  were  poor  and  the 
.season  was  already  far  advanced.  The  deputy  surveyor  of  Xova 
Scotia,  Captain  Charles  Morris,  Jr.,  was  on  the  ground,  and  when 
called  upon  after  a  few  day.s'  inter\-al  by  Allan,  explained  cour- 
teously that  he  was  merely  following  out  positive  instructions  in 
laying  out  the  lands  for  the  new  settlers,  and  freely  showed  the 
charts  in  his  possession,  namely,  those  of  Holland  and  DesBarres, 
in  which,  as  Allan  remarked,  "the  westerh"  branch  of  Pa.ssama- 
quoddy  called  Cobscook  is  set  down  as  the  River  vSt.  Croix." 
Soon  more  families  disembarked,  and  Allan  notes  that  vessels 
were  daily  arriving  with  supplies,  that  a  number  of  houses  were 
already  Iniilt,  as  well  as  a  large  store  for  government  provisions, 
and  that  valuable  timber  was  being  constantly  cut  and  ship])ed. 
His  letter  went  on  to  say — on  good  authority,  as  he  asserted — 
that  the  British  intended  to  claim  all  the  timber  lands  on  Pa.ssa- 
niaquodd\'  Bay  as  part  of  Xova  Scotia,  and  that  a  company  of 
wealthy  persons  under  the  management  of  one  Pagan,  formerly 
of  Ca.sco  Ba\-,  and  others,  was  ready  to  go  into  the  lumber  bu.si- 
ness,  having  sufficient  influence  with  the  government  to  obtain 

I.     h'cport  on  the  .Ini.  .I/.vt.  /;/  the  Rov.  Inst.  o/(,'.  Brit.,  /!'.,  372-374; 
.S7.  Croi.v  Courier  .series,  L  \'.\'/A',  LXXX. 

22 


settlers  enough,  including  disbanded  soldiers,  to  keep  possession 
of  the  Passaniaquoddy  region.  To  prevent  this,  Allan  advocated 
immediate  steps  "to  remove  those  settlers  from  St.  Andrews."' 

However,  the  new  settlement  appears  to  have  entertained 
greater  fear  of  the  Indians  than  of  the  Americans  during  the 
first  winter,  for  Captain  (Samuel)  Osborne  thought  it  necessary 
to  patrol  the  bay  in  the  frigate  Ariadne  throughout  that  season 
to  ward  off  the  red  men.  By  January,  1784,  there  were  sixty  or 
more  houses  at  St.  Andrews,  and  in  February  Governor  Parr 
established  a  court  there  for  the  District  of  Passaniaquoddy.  In 
March  a  part  of  the  Penobscot  garrison,  the  74th  or  Argyle 
Highlanders,  arrived  at  vSt.  Andrews,  while  others,  it  is  .said, 
landed  at  L'Etang  (St.  George's  Town)  to  await,  like  the 
loyalists,  the  location  of  their  lands.  The  main  body  of  the 
Highland  regiment  had  sailed  for  England  more  than  two  months 
before.  By  the  first  days  of  May.  there  were  ninety  houses  in 
St.  Andrews,  and  a  letter  of  that  time,  still  extant,  reports 
"great  preparations  making  in  every  quarter  of  the  town  for 
more."  The  letter  continues:  "Numbers  of  inhabitants  are 
daily  arriving,  and  a  great  many  others  are  hourly  looked  for 
from  different  quarters."  The  writer,  WiUiam  Pagan,  had  al- 
ready explored  part  of  the  land  laid  out  for  the  A.ssociated  Loy- 
alists from  Penobscot,  namely,  the  region  round  Oak  Point  Bay 
and  up  the  vScoodic  River.  He  found  it  to  be  of  good  soil  and 
abounding  "wath  large  quantities  of  hard  wood,  [and]  all  kinds 
of  pine  timber  of  a  large  growth"  conveniently  located  for  trans- 
portation by  water.  He  remarked  that  two  sawmills  had  already 
been  erected  on  the  Scoodic,  and  that  he  had  seen  good  sites  for 
others.  He  was  convinced  that  Passaniaquoddy  Bay  could  sup- 
ply the  Briti-sh  West  Indies  with  "every  species  of  lumber 
that  could  be  shipped  from  any  part  of  New  P^ngland,  except 
oak  staves."-'  What  was  actually  being  accomplished  in  the  ship- 
ment of  lumber  by  the  people  of  St.  Andrews  appears  in  a  com- 
munication of  somewhat  later  date  (May  26),  signed  by  Robert 
Pagan  and  others,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  a  number  of  cargoes 

1.  Letter  of  John  Allan  of  Dec.  15,  1783,  to  Gov.  John  Hancock,  quoted 
in  the  .S7.  Croix  Courier  scries.  LXXIX. 

2.  Letter  of    Wni.    Pagan  to  Dr.    Wni.    Paine,  May  2,  1784,  printed  in 
Acadie)isis,]\\\y,  1907,  210-112. 

23 


had  already  been  sent  to  the  West  Indies- and  to  various  parts  of    v 
Nova    Scotia.'    By.   the  end  of    December,     vSt.     Andrews    had 
expanded  to  a  village' of  between  two  hundred-amd  three  hundredi  ■«< 
houses,    and    other    settlements   were   making   rapid    headway. 
General  Rufus  Putman,.  who  visited  Passamaquoddy  at  the  time 
mentioned,    reported  that  "a  town  at  present  called  Schoodick, 
near  the  head  of    navigation  has  one  hundred  houses;    besides 
which  there  is  a  township  at  the  head  of  Oak  Bay,   granted  to  a 
company  of  associates  at  the  head  of  which  there  is  a  Mr.  Nor- 
wood from  Cape  Ann;  anothdr  township  west  of  this  is  surveyed 
for  a  company  from  Connecticut,  and  these  companies  obtain  the 
same  supplies  of  provisions  as  the  refugees-do." '-!        i    ,.. 

The  plan  of  St.  Andrews,  which. was  completed  perhaps 
early  in  1784,  provided  for  "six  parallel  streets  running  from 
northwest  to  southeast  and  thirteen  streets  cutting  them  at  -right 
angles,  thus  forming  sixty  square  blocks,  besides  twelve. blocks 
on  the  southwest  side  of  the  town  more  or  less  indented  by  the 
irregularities  of  St.-  Andrews  Harbor.  Each  block  was  divided 
into  eight  lots,"  On  August  12,  this  <town  plot  was  granted 
to  "William  Gammon  and  429  others,"  .several  of  the  grantees 
receiving  more  than  one  lot.  Some  of  the'carliest  houses  erected 
ill  the  town  had  been  set  up  originally  at  Penobscot,:  only  to  be 
taken  down  for  removal  at  the  evacuation.  '  Among  these  1  are  the 
St.  Andrews  Coffee  House  still  standing  at  the  foot  of  William 
Street,  the  store  and  the  home  once  owned  by  Robert  Pagan,  and 
houses  built  by  Robert -Garnett  and  Captain  •  Jeremiah:  Pote. 
The  first  two-story  building  to  be  erected  in  St. 'And  re  wsi  was 
owned  and  occupied  by  John  Dunn,  who' brought  the  frameiand 
materials  from- New  York  in  1784,  the  year  in  which' the  other 
structures  were  also  set  up.^  Many  of  the  refugee  families  were 
loth  to  leave  behind  their  coats  of  arms  and  their  treasures  in 
mahogany  and  silver.  These  cherished  possessions  stilV'  remain- 
in  some  old  homes  at  vSt.  Andrews,*  and  doubtle.ss-  at  other 
places  on  Passamaquodd}'  Bay.  By  1788,  if  we  may  credit  the 
statements  in  an  old  manu.script,  the  population  of  St.   Andrews 

1.  AcadiensiSy  July,  1907,  213.  ,     -  ■ 

2.  St.  Croix  Courier  series,  CXI'/.   ■ 

3.  Acadiensis,  July,  1907,  231,  214,  222,  226  228,  225;  July,ii9o3,  160. 

4.  Ibid.,  July  1903,  161. 

24 


and  vicinity  had  increased  to  more  than  three  thousand,  while 
the  town  itself  now  numbered  about  six  hundred  houses.  '  At 
this  time,  and  for  some  j'ears  afterwards,  the  place  rivaled  vSt. 
John,  New  Brunswick,  in  commercial  importance. - 

Ever  since  the  settlement  of  St  Andrews,  religious  services 
had  been  conducted  by  the  civil  magistrate,  who  acted  as  lay 
reader  on  Sundaj's.  In  November,  1785,  the  Rexerend  Samuel 
Cooke,  of  Shrewsbury,  New  Jersey,  who  had  recently  removed  to 
St.  John  where  he  had  been  appointed  missionary,  visited  Campo- 
bello,  St.  Andrews,  and  Digdeguash.  At  these  places  he  read 
prayers,  preached,  and  performed  baptisms,  and  then  returned  to 
his  own  parish.  In  the  following  year,  the  Reverend  Samuel 
Andrews,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  who  had  been  rector  of  St. 
Paul's  Church  in  Wallingford,  Connecticut,  came  to  minister  at 
St.  Andrews.  He  found  there  "a  considerable  body  of  people  of 
different  national  extraction,  living  in  great  harmony  and  peace, 
punctual  in  attending  Divine  Service,  and  behaving  with  pro- 
priety and  devotion."  Sent  as  a  missionary  by  the  Society  in 
London  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  "Parson"  Andrews 
proved  to  be  a  man  of  broad  and  liberal  spirit  without  any  sacer- 
dotal pretensions.  This  was  fortunate,  for  the  majority  of  the 
people  of  his  netv  parish  were  Scotch  Presbyterians.  Neverthe- 
less, he  won  the  favor  of  all,  his  congregation  compri.sing  all  the 
Protestant  elements  represented  in  the  town.  The  first  vestry 
meeting  was  held  August  2,  1786.  In  the  following  April,  Mr. 
Andrews  was  temporarily  incapacitated  for  his  work  by  a  paralyt- 
ic stroke;  and  his  son,  Samuel  F.  Andrews,  was  appointed 
school  master  and  catechist,  being  thus  able  to  relieve  his  father 
of  part  of  his  duty.  The  missionary's  illness  did  not  prevent 
the  taking  of  prompt  measures  to  erect  a  church  edifice,  which 
was  accomplished  in  1788,  although  the  structure  was  not  com- 
pleted until  September,  1790.  It  was  called  All  Saints'  Church 
and  measured  fifty-two  feet  in  length  by  forty  in  width,  the  ex- 
pense being  met  partly  out  of  a  fund  contributed  by  the  parish, 
but  chiefly  out  of  a  government  allowance.  The  church  had  a 
bell  presented  by  Mr.  John  MacMaster,   a  merchant  in  London, 

1.  Raymond,   Winslmv  Papers,  jj^. 

2.  Acadiettsis,  July,  1903,   158. 

25 


and  was  decorated  with  the  royal  coat  of  arms  which  the  mission- 
ary had  himself  brought  from  Connecticut.^  Owing  to  the  fact 
that  most  of  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Andrews  professed  the  Pres- 
byterian faith,  the  number  of  communicants  remained  small,  but 
baptisms,  especially  of  children,  were  frequent.  Besides  All 
Saints'  Church,  another  memorial  of  the  first  rector  is  to  be  found 
in  "Minister's  Island,"  which  had  been  granted  under  the  name 
of  Chamcook  to  Captain  vSamuel  Osborne,  but  was  sold  by  him  to 
Mr.  i^  ndrews  in  March,  1791,  Captain  Osborne  having  removed 
to  London,  England.  On  this  island,  overlooking  St.  Andrews, 
the  rector  built  his  house   and  passed  the  remainder  of  his  life.'-^ 

Some  years  after  purchasing  Chamcook,  the  genial  clergyman 
gathered  about  him  a  little  group  of  the  most  notable  loyalists  in 
the  town  in  an  organization  known  as  "The  Friendly  Society." 
Its  members  held  weekly  meetings,  at  which  they  discussed 
questions  of  religion,  morality,  law,  medicine,  geography,  and 
history,  besides  contributions  of  importance  in  newspapers  and 
magazines.  By  an  article  of  their  constitution,  they  limited 
themselves  to  "spirits  and  water"  as  the  only  refreshments  per- 
mitted in  time  of  meeting.  Their  philanthrophy  was  manifest  in 
their  purpose  to  exert  their  influence  in  suppressing  immorality 
in  the  community  of  which  the}^  were  the  leaders.  It  should  be 
added  that  during  the  summer  of  i  Soo  three  members  of  this  society, 
namely.  Dr.  Caleff,  Colonel  Wyer,  and  Henry  B.  Brown,  together 
with  Mrs.  Robert  Pagan,  rendered  heroic  service  in  combatting 
an  epidemic  of  smallpox  that  swept  vSt.  Andrews  and  vicinity. 
Of  the  five  hundred  and  more  cases  that  developed,  onl}^  three 
were  lost.  The  society  flourished  during  the  lifetime  of  its 
founder,  that  is,  for  thirteen  years,  and  then  died.^ 

Aside  from  the  town  plot  of  St.  Andrews,  the  Old  Settlers' 
Reserve  at  Scoodic  Falls,  (now  the  town  plot  of  St.  Stephen), 
the  Indian  Reserve,  ( now  Milltown ) ,  and  a  few  scattered  lots 
reserved  for  i)ublic  use,   six  tracts  of  shore  and  river  lots  were 

1.  This  coat  of  arms  now  hangs  over  the  main  entrance  of  All  Saints' 
Church  in  St.  Andrews,  the  second  structure  of  that  name. 

2.  Xc?i'  Haven  Hist.  Soc.  Papers,  VII,  324,  325;  Lee,  First  Fifty  Years 
of  tlie  Cljurch  of  Enoland  in  the  Province  of  N.  B.,  32-35,  8284;  Eaton,  The 
Church  in  Nova  Scotia,  150-152,  158;  Acadicnsis,  July,  1903.  193;  July,  1907, 
236,  238. 

3.  Acadiensis,  July,  1907,  1S7-192;  Raymond, /r/;/\A'rt' />(?/)(■■;•.<,  455. 


p^ranted  to  the  Penobscot  Associated  Loyalists  in  1784.  These 
tracts  extend  from  Boca])ec  on  the  inner  ba>-  of  Passamaquoddy 
to  vSprague's  Falls  on  the  vSt.  Croix,  and  include  two  ranges  of 
lots  on  Mohannes  Stream.  They  form  the  greater  part  of  the 
water  front  of  the  ])resent  parishes  of  St.  Patrick,  vSt.  Andrews, 
St.  Croix,  vSt.  l)a\-id,  Dufferin,  and  St.  Stephen,  and  extend  over 
nearly  half  the  length  of  Charlotte  County.'  In  this  region, 
the  associators  formed  their  settlements,  among  which  were  Boca- 
bee,  Dufferin,  Moannes,  St.  Croix,  and  St.  David.  St.  Croix 
was  first  settled  along  the  river  of  the  same  name  and  the  Waweig, 
while  St.  David  sprang  up  at  the  head  of  Oak  Bay,  all  around 
which  extended  settlements  of  the  Penobscot  loyalists.  The 
village  of  Chamcook,  which  arose  from  the  expansion  of  neighbor- 
ing colonies,  was  of  somewhat  later  origin.  -  Another  lo\alist 
village,  whose  inhabitants  came  in  large  part  from  Penobscot, 
was  St.  George's  Town.  It  was  laid  out  on  the  western  side  of 
the  little  peninsula  in  I/Etang  Harbor,  facing  the  island  now 
known  as  Fry's  Island.  Its  original  grantees  numbered  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-three  persons,  who  received  their  lots  imder  date  of 
November  i,  1784.  In  all  perhaps  two  himdred  families  settled 
here,  many  of  the  townsmen  being  disbanded  soldiers  of  the  Roy- 
al Fencible  Americans  and  probably  of  the  S4th  Regiment.  Of 
these  men  Captain  Peter  Clinch  wrote  a  dismal  account  to  the 
Provincial  Secretary  in  February,  1785,  charging  them  with 
general  worthlessness,  due  to  the  introduction  of  rum  into  the 
community  through  the  agency  of  Captain  Philip  J3ailey.  Clinch 
also  charged  Bailey  with  exploiting  the  inhabitants  for  his  own 
benefit.  However,  even  Clinch  admitted  that  there  were  man\- 
settlers  in  the  town  again.st  whom  no  reasonable  objection  could 
be  raised."'  In  1799,  a  forest  fire  destroyed  the  village,  and  it 
had  never  been  rebuilt.^ 

In  addition  to  the  settlements  formed  by  the  Penobscot  As-^ 
sociated  Loyalists,  there  was  a  number  of  .settlements  established 
in  the  Passamaquoddy  District  in  the  same  period  by  loyalists 
from  localities  other  than  Penobscot.       Among  these  were  the 

1.  ^-iaufii'/isis,  July,   1903,   172. 

2.  Gaiiong:,  Origins  qf Settlements  in  N./>.,  118,  123,  12S,   156,   ibj-^' 

3.  .-Iracfieiisis,   July,  1907,  250-260.  -'     '  ^  .       ■•.-• 

4.  .S7.  Ci  oi.r  Courier  series,    L.W I V.        "  'V'  '  '''  '" 


town  of  St.  Stephen  and  the  Old  Ridge,  a  colony  on  the  Digde- 

guash   above    its   mouth,  another  on  the  Magaguadavic  to  the 

«    "•'      Second  Falls,  Pennfield,  and  farther  east  along  the  coast  Lepreau, 

•i  '"       Mace's  Baj-,  Seeley's  Cove,  Dipper  Harbor,  Chance  Harbor,  and 

-'"I    Musquash.     The  town  of  St.  Stephen  at  the  head  of  navigation 

on  the  St.  Croix,  together  with  the  country  north  of  the  town, 

»  including  the  Old  Ridge,  was  settled  by  the  Port  Matoon(  Mouton) 

Association    of    loyalists    and    disbanded  soldiers  of  the  British 

^  Legion.     This  association  took  its  name  from  the  village  it  had 

»        founded  late  in  i7S3in  Queen's  County,  Nova  Scotia.     When  the 

~  t  snow  disappeared  in  the  following  spring,  the  locality  was  found 

to  be  rocky  and  sterile.     Hardly  had  this  discovery  been  made 

-         when  an  accidental  fire  consumed  the  town,  and  compelled  the 

immediate  removal  of  the  inhabitants.     Of  these,  the  majority 

i>  betook  themselves  to  Chedabucto  Bay  in  the  eastern  part  of  Nova 

Scotia,  while  the  rest  decided  to  accompany  Captain  Nehemiah 
Marks  to  Passamaquoddy.  Captain  Marks  was  a  refugee  from 
Derby.  Connecticut,  had  served  as  a  captain  in  the  corps  of  Armed 

'i^'  Boatmen  and  later  as  lieutenant  in  the  Maryland  Loyalists.     His 

party  landed  where  the  town  of  St.  Stephen  now  stands,  May  26, 
1784,  hoisted  the  British  flag,  and  called  the  place  Morristown,  a 
name  it  continued  to  bear  for  several  years.  In  the  following 
September,  19,850  acres  on  the  Scoodic  or  St.  Croix  River  were 
distributed  among  the  members  of  the  association,  one  hundred 
•'  and  twenty-one  in  number,  while  garden  lots  in  Morristown  were 

bestow^ed  upon  John  Dunbar  and  one  hundred  and  five  others. 
Captain  John  Jones,  who  had  first  come  to  Passamaquoddy  as  a 

-  •         surveyor  for  the  lo3alists,  was  one  of  the  recipients  of  a  farm  lot. 

Among  the  grantees  of  the  town  are  found  the  names  of  many 
'  -a-  '        members  of  the  Penobscot  Association,  who  also  held  grants  in 

-  St.  Andrews,  besides  of  some  who  were  favored  with  lots  both  in 
■^'■■-           St.  Andrews  and  vSt.  George's  Town.     It  is  no  doubt  true  that  a 

■   ■        number  of  the  grantees  of  St.  Stephen  abandoned  their  lands  or 

sold  them  for  a  nominal  sum;  but  manj'  others  remained,   and 

—■'  numerous  farms  along  the  Old  Ridge  are  still  held  by  their  de- 

1    scendants.     Captain  Marks  became  a  grantee  ofbothwSt.  Andrews 

and  St.  Stephen,  and  was  one  of  the  first  justices  of  the  peace  in 

Charlotte  County.     He  died  in  St.  Stephen  in  July,  1799,  having 

-  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  community  he  had   planted  in  the 

28 


.  wilderness  making  substantial  proj^ress.  By  1803,  the  parish  as 
a- whole  had  a  population  of  nearly  seven  hundred.  It  boasted 
seven  sawmills,  'or  almost  half  the  number  to  be  found  in  the 
entire  Passamaquoddy.  District,  and  was  turning  out  annually 
4,000,000  feet,  of  boards,  or  more  than  all  the  other  mills  to- 
gether. ■ 

i  "  The  .settlements  formed  by  loyalists  who  had  not  come  from 
Penobscot  were  assigned  locations  on  the  east  side  of  Pa.ssama- 
quodtj)-  Bay.  -Thus,'!  John  Curry  and  forty-two  others  received 
15,250  acreson  the  Digdeguash  in  the  Parish  of  "St.  Patrick,  at 
the  end  of  March,  17H4;  At  the  same  time,  a  grant  "of  2,000  acres 
was  issued  to  Colin  Campbell.  Lieutenants  Thomas  Fitzsimmons 
and  Colin 'McNab,  who  were  assigned  1,000  acres  in  the  same 
region,  ipermitted  their  grant  to  escheat  to  the  government. ^ 
■-'■  'Two  tracts,  one  on  the  east  side  of  the  lower  Magaguadavic, 
and  the  other  on  the  L'Etang  with  its  western  shoreline  on  Pas- 
-samaquoddy  Bay,  were  granted  to  a  score  of  loyalists,  of  whom 
Dr.  •  William-  Paine  of  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  was  the  most 
notable.  A  refugee  in  Halifax  after  the  evacuation  of  Boston, 
■Dr.' Paine  had  brought  his  party  to -Passamaquoddy  late  in  1783. 

•■  buJt  did  not  obtain  the  grants,  which  together  amounted  to  5,500 
acres,  until  some  three  or  fourhionthSilater.     Of  the  tract  on  the 

'Magaguadavic,    the  Worcester  loyalist  ^received  1,000  acres.      In 

-  additiofn,  he  was  given  theJsland  of  LaTete  in  recognition  of  his 
serk^ices  in  Rhode  Island  and  New  'York-  as  apothecary  to  the 
^British  forces  and  at  Halifax as^hysician  to  the  King's  hospitals 
With  his  family,  Dr.  Paine  too"k  possession  of  La  Tete  in  the 
summer  of  1784,' but  within  a  twelvemonth  removed  to  St.  John, 
New  Brunswick,  to  educate  his  children- and  practise  his  ]irofes- 
sion.  Nevertheless,  the  County  of  Charlotte  elected  him  to  the 
Assembly  'of  New  .Brun^\^ick  in  i785,';atid  he  was  appointed  clerk 
of  the  House.  <>  He  was  also  commissioned  as'  a  ju.stice  for  the 
County  of  Sunbiir}',  dnd  held  other  offices  during  his  residence 
there.     In  1787,  having  secured  thepermission  of  the  War  Office, 

r.      SL    Croix    Courier  series.  CI\\    LXX,     LXXXl\    AAAA  ///, 
LXXX/X,  XC    XCI,    XC//,  C/X;     OAnon^,   Origins  0/ the  Settlemenls 
in  N.B.f-  55,  57,   170;  Ganong,  Historic  Sites  i/iX.  £.,  340;     Raymond 
Winshnv  Papers,    489. 

2.     Ganong,  Hist.  Sites  in  iV.  />'.,  339. 

29 


lie  returned  to  Massachusetts,  at  first  to  Salem  where  he  spent 
six  years,  thence  removing  to  Worcester  to  enjoy  the  privilege 
— unusual  for  one  of  his  former  attachments — of  residing  in  the 
paternal  mansion  and  being  treated  with  respectful  consideration 
by  his  fellow-townsmen.  Here  he  lived  out  the  remaining  forty 
years  of  his  life  with  means  ample  to  provide  for  every  want.  His 
status  as  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  which  he  had  forfeited 
early  in  the  Revolution,  was  restored  to  him  by  special  act  in  1825. 
Samual  Bliss  of  Greenfield,  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  grantees 
of  Dr.  Paine' s  party,  later  secured  the  concession  of  the  large 
island  at  the  mouth  of  I^'Etang  Harbor,  still  known  as  Bliss's 
Island,  and  of  the  small  island  near  it  called  the  White  Horse. ^ 

West  of  the  lower  Magaguadavic,  theRo^-al  Fencible  Ameri- 
cans were  for  the  most  part  settled.  Although  included  among  the 
loyalist  corps,  the  Fencibles  had  been  enlisted  in  Nova  vScotia  and 
Newfoundland.  Such  of  their  officers  and  men  as  received 
grants  at  Pa.ssamaq noddy  appear  to  have  been  in  garrison  at  Fort 
Cumberland,  where  they  were  disbanded  in  17S3.  Captain  Philip 
Bailey  and  fifty-eight  others  landed  on  November  10  of  the  same 
year  at  the  mouth  of  the  Magaguadavic,  and  perhaps  Lieutenant 
Peter  Clinch  accompanied  them,  although  he  had  visited  the 
region  in  advance.  Late  in  Februar}',  1784,  Lieutenant  Clinch 
was  granted  seven  hundred  acres  extending  from  the  lower  falls 
to  the  headwaters  of  L'Etang  and  in  the  following  month  the 
others  received  their  grant  of  more  than  10.000  acres.  That  an 
additional  number  of  the  Fencibles  came  to  Passamaquoddy  is 
.shown  by  the  muster  held  at  L'Etang,  or  St.  George's  Town,  on 
Juh'  3,  1784,  when  there  were  present  of  the  "late  Royal  Fencible 
American  Regiment,"  one  hundred  and  eight  men,  forty  women, 
and  fifty-three  children,  or  a  total  of  two  hundred  and  one  per- 
sons. The  valley  of  the  Magaguadavic  contained  rich  meadow 
lands,  abundant  forests,  and  ample  water  powers;  but  these  ad- 
vantages made  no  appeal  to  most  of  the  disbanded  soldiers,  who 
occupied  themselves  with  hunting  and  fishing,  or  gave  them- 
selves over  to  the  pleasures  of  the  cup.      Many  soon  left  the  coun- 

I.  .S7.  Croix  Courier  series.  LAW'///,  AAA'/',-  Co//.  N.J!.  Hist.  Soc. 
V.  /,  No.  3,  273;  Stark,  Loya/isis  0/ Mass. ,  2)^^-?>^T>  Ganong,  Hist.  Sites  in 
A^.  B.,  339;  Chandler,  T/ie  C/iaud/cr  Fajiii/y,  269;  Paine,  Paine  Family 
Reo^ister. 

30 


tr}'.  The  others  improved  their  farms,  and  probably  followed 
the  life  of  the  woodsman.  The  descendants  of  the  latter  were 
joined  by  new  immigrants,  the  settlement  was  extended  iij)  the 
river,  and  lumbering  operations  were  considerably  increased.  By 
1803,  the  population  of  the  Parish  of  St.  George  was  four  hun- 
dred, of  which  only  seventy-eight  were  men.  There  were  al- 
ready five  mills  in  the  parish,  w^hich  were  cutting  annually 
2,300,000  feet  of  boards.  In  addition,  the  settlers  were  raising 
good  crops  of  various  cereals,  besides  potatoes  and  flax.^ 

East  of  St.  George's  Town,  an  association  of  Pennsylvania 
Quakers  settled  on  the  west  shore  of  Beaver  Harbor,  where  a 
town  called  Bellevaew  was  laid  out  for  them.  The  assocation 
was  formed  early  in  17S3  in  New  York  Cit}',  where  its  members 
had  taken  refuge.  Joshua  Knight  of  Abbington,  a  suburb  of 
Philedelphia,  appears  to  have  been  the  leader  of  tue  "societ}'." 
Samuel  Fairlamb,  John  Rankin,  and  George  Brown  were  .sent 
out  as  agents  to  .select  a  place  for  settlement  on  the  river  St.  John, 
but  chose  Beaver  Harbor  instead.  Among  the  regulations 
adopted  before  the  part}'  sailed  was  one  providing  that  "no  slave  be 
either  bought  or  sold  nor  kept  b}'  any  person  belonging  to  said 
societ)^  on  any  pretense  whatsoever."  The  associators  reached 
their  destination  sometime  before  October  12,  1783,  and  were 
granted  one  hundred  and  forty-nine  lots  of  the  nine  hundred  and 
fifty  constituting  the  town  plot  at  Beaver  Harbor.  The}'  renamed 
their  settlement  Penn's  Field,  since  contracted  to  Pennfield, 
and  were  evidently  joined  by  other  immigrants,  for  a  contem- 
porary writer  estimated  the  population  of  the  place  at  eight 
hundred.  It  is  said  to  have  contained  about  three  hundred 
houses  in  1786,  but  was  devastated  by  fire  in  the  following  year. 
Doubtless,  it  was  this  disaster  that  caused  the  removal  of  most 
of  the  inhabitants  to  Pennfield  Ridge,  Mace's  Ba}-,  and  other 
localities,  and  left  those  remaining  behind  in  great  poverty. 
Fortunately,  two  Quakers  from  Philadelphia  vi.sited  the  town  in 
the  late  summer  of  1787,  and  noting  the  distres.sed  condition  of 
the  colonists,  raised  a  subscription  among  the  members  of  their 

I.  S/.  Croix  Courier  scries, L XX /I',  LXXVI I-.CoU.  N.  H.  Hist.Soc. 
No.  5,  197,  201,  217,  21S;  Ganong,  Hist.  Sites  in  N.  B.,  339,-  Ganonp, 
Origins  of  the  Settlements  in  N.B.,  167;  Raymond,  Winslow  Papers  490; 

Aeadiensis,  July,  1907,  255,  256. 

31 


sect  on  their  return  home,  with  which  the}'  purchased  and  shipped 
a  supply  of  flour  and  Indian  meal,  together  with  other  necessaries, 
to  Beaver  Harbor.  According  to  certain  brief  but  interesting 
records  of  the  town,  which  are  still  extant,  donations  were  also 
received  from  Friends  in  England,  these  donations  being 
mentioned  under  date  of  March  lo,  1789.  The  records  also  tell 
us  that  in  July,  1786,  the  society  at  Pennfield  decided  to  erect  a 
small  meeting  house  on  ground  allotted  for  the  purpose.  This 
intention  was  carried  out,  and  the  meeting  house  was  still  standing 
in  the  spring  of  1789.  The  loss  in  population  suffered  by  the 
Parish  of  Pennfield  during  this  period  is  shown  by  the  census  of 
1803,  which  reported  but  fifty-four  inhabitants,  principally  Quakers 
concerning  whom  it  was  noted  that  they  were  excellent  farmers 
living  on  a  good  tract  of  land  and  in  comfortable  circumstances.^ 

The  decline  of  Pennfield  helped  to  populate  the  smaller 
harbors  farther  east,  although  some  of  these  had  been  settled 
shortly  after  the  war  by  loyalists  who  may  have  come  either  from 
vSt.  John  or  directly  from  the  States.  Lepreau  was  first  occupied 
in  1 784;  Mace's  Ba}'  was  settled  later  by  the  exodus  from  Penn- 
field; Seely's  Cove  had  its  origin  in  1784  or  1785  as  a  small  loyalist 
colon}'  formed  by  Justus  Seely;  Dipper  Harboi  and  Chance  Harbor 
both  began  as  fishing  villages  founded  by  loyalists  in  1784,  and 
Musquash  was  established  a  year  earlier  by  people  of  the  same 
class.  The  expan.sion  of  the  descendants  of  these  groups  has 
supplied  settlers  to  other  places  along  the  coast.- 

Another  settlement  worthy  of  mention  was  that  of  the  Cape 
Ann  Association  in  what  is  now  the  Parish  of  vSt.  David.  This 
parish  lies  northwest  of  the  Bay  of  Passamaquoddy,  and  includes 
the  headwaters  of  Dennis  Stream  and  the  Digdeguash  River, 
which  are  not  navigable.  The  as.sociation  numbered  two  hundred 
and  twenty  members,  and  received  a  grant  of  nearly  23,000  acres 
on  October  i,  1784.  Many  of  the  grantees  appear  to  have  come 
from  Gloucester,  Massachusetts,  and  vicinity.  Several,  however, 
were  from  New  Boston  in  New  Hampshire.  Francis  Norwood, 
the  leader  of  the  association,   was  one  of  the  latter.     Twenty-six 

1.  .5"/.  Croix  Courier  scries,  LXXII:  Coll.  N.  B.Hist.  Soc..  /l\  73-80; 
Ganong,  Origins  of  Ihe  Settlcuients  in  X.  B.,  158;  Raymond,  H'inslozv 
Papers,  345,  490. 

2.  Ganong,  Origins  of  l/ie  Seltloiwitls  in  X.  /A,  144,  171,  127,  123,  152. 

32 


of  those  whohad  grants  at  St.  Andrews  drew  lands  also  in  St.  David; 
while  several  others,  whose  names  appear  in  the  Penobscot  As- 
sociation grant,  are  listed  among  the  grantees  of  the  Cape  Ann 
Association.  Among  the  latter  were  Moses  Gerri.sh,  John  Gillis, 
and  William  Monroe.  These  facts  indicate  that  nearly  one 
seventh,  if  not  more,  of  the  Cape  Ann  company  were  loyalists. 
Since,  however,  most  of  them  did  not  belong  to  this  cla.ss,  the 
association  was  assigned  "l)ack  lands,"  that  is,  lands  back  from 
navigable  waters,  evidently  on  the  principle  that  loyalists  and 
disbanded  troops  were  entitled  to  the  best  locations.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  St.  Andrews  and  Penobscot  grantees  drew  "back 
lands"  either  for  their  children,  which  they  had  a  right  to  do,  or 
as  a  matter  of  speculation.  However,  the  .settlement  in  St. 
David  did  not  fulfil  its  promi.se,  although  the  .soil  there 
was  of  excellent  quality:  in  1788,  there  were  nearl\'  one 
hundred  and  fifty  absentees,  and  two  years  later,  all  but 
forty-six  lots  had  been  escheated.  By  1803,  the  settlers  num- 
bered two  hundred  and  eighty-six,  and  were  reported  to  be  the 
most  independent  farmers  of  any  in  the  County  of  Charlotte.^ 

Thus  far  we  have  been  dealing  almost  exclusively  with  the 
.settlements  formed  on  the  mainland  by  loyalists,  or,  in  the  case  of 
St.  David,  with  a  settlement  in  which  lo>alists  had  .some  small 
share.  We  turn  now  to  the  islands.  The  large  islands  on  the 
west  side  of  Passamaquoddy  Bay,  as  well  as  some  of  the  smaller 
ones,  gained  a  number  of  settlers  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  Indeed,  the  outermost  of  these  i.slands,  namel}-,  Grand 
Manan,  became  the  resort  of  several  loyali.st  families''^  as  early  as 
177Q,  these  families  coming  from  Machias,  Maine,  where  the}- con- 
sidered it  unsafe  to  remain  any  longer.  The  place  in  which  they 
built  their  huts  still  retains  thename  of  the  leader,  Joel  Bonney, 
being  known  as  Bonney's  Brook.  However,  the}^  were  not  per- 
mitted to  enjoy  peace  even  here,  and  in  1780  the}-  removed  to 
the    mouth    of   the    Digdeguash    on    the    mainland.-^     With    the 

I  SL  Croix  Courier  series,  IvXX,  CXVI;  Ganong,  Hist.  Sites  in  N. 
^■.  338.  3^0;  Ganong,  Origins  oj  the  Settlements  in  N.  B.,  55;  Raymond, 
J{'instozv  Papers,  489. 

2.  The  families  were  those  of  Joel  Bonney  of  Pembroke,  Conn.,  (now 
in  Mass.),  Abiel  Sprague.  and  James  Spragne:  Cot/.  jV.  R.  Hist.  Soc,  I'.  I, 
No.  3,  346. 

3.  Coll.  N.  B.  Hist.  Sac,  I'.  /,  No.  3,  346,  347,  359;  Acadiensis,  July, 
1906,   165;  St.  Croix  Courier  series,  XCl'I,  IJII. 

33 


endiug  of  the  war,  a  license  was  granted  "to  John  Jones,  Thomas 
Oxnard,  Thomas  Ross,  Peter  Jones,  and  Moses  Gerrish,  and 
others,  being  fifty  famihes,  to  occupy  during  pleasure  the  Island 
of  Grand  Manan,  and  the  small  islands  adjacent  in  the  fishery, 
with  liberty  of  cutting  frame  stuff  and  timber  for  building." 
Gerrish  and  a  few  of  his  associates  took  possession,  and  begati 
their  settlement  near  Grand  Harbor  in  May,  1784.  They  found 
their  island  to  be  fourteen  miles  in  length  and  nine  miles  in 
l)readth,  "very  steep  and  craggy  on  all  sides,"  but  fertile  in  soil 
and  covered  with  good  timber.  Evidently,  not  all  the  families 
expected  joined  the  new  community,  but  so  far  as  we  can  tell 
those  who  came  were  prominent  refugees  from  Penobscot.  Ger- 
rish himself  was  one  of  these,  although  originally  from  New- 
bury, Massachusetts,  and  a  famil}^  by  the  name  of  Cheney  was 
from  the  same  place.  Thomas  Ross  had  been  a  mariner  at 
Falmouth,  Maine,  and  entered  the  West  Indies  trade  after 
coming  to  Grand  Manan.  He  was  granted  a  small  island,  still 
called  Ross  Island,  just  east  of  the  one  on  which  he  made  his 
home.  Captain  John  Jones  appears  to  have  returned  to  Maine 
in  1786,  after  disposing  of  his  interest  in  the  island  to  James  and 
Patrick  McMaster,  two  merchants  of  Boston,  who  had  become 
discredited  early  in  the  Revolution  on  account  of  their  loyalty. 
John  Dogget,  another  of  the  refugee  settlers,  was  a  native  of 
Middleboro,  Massachusetts.  No  doubt,  the  isolated  position  of 
the  island  retarded  its  development:  at  any  rate,  its  population 
was  but  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  in  1803.  Nevertheless,  the 
number  of  inhabitants  was  sufllicienth'  large  to  help  establish  the 
British  claim  to  Grand  Manan  in  the  long  controversy  with  the 
United  States  that  followed  years  after.  The  retention  of  the 
island  was  regarded  of  great  importance  by  England  on  account 
of  its  being  the  key  to  the  entrance  of  the  Bay  of  Fvindy.  To- 
gether with  other  islands  in  Passamaqiioddy  Bay,  Grand  Manan 
was  declared  part  of  New  Brunswick  in  181 7.  For  years,  Gerrish 
was  the  most  prominent  resident  on  the  island,  and  served  both 
as  collector  of  customs  and  justice  of  the  peace.  While  he  and 
his  as.sociates  failed  to  secure  the  fifty  families  required  by  the 
license  of  occupation  to  obtain  a  grant  of  the  entire  island,  the 
Council  of  New  Brunswick  ordered  grants  to  the  settlers  of  their 
respective  possessions  and  allotments,  together  with  a  glebe  and 

34 


a  lot  for  iniblic  uses,  and  these  grants  were  dul}'  passed,  November 
I,  1810.' 

North  of  Grand  Manan,  the  Lshmd  of  Canii)obello  was  partly 
settled  by  loj'alists,  a  few  of  whom  remained  but  a  short  time. 
At  the  opening  of  the  Revolution,  John  Hanson,  a  native  of 
Marblehead,  Massachusetts,  came  to  the  island  in  a  whaleboat, 
only  to  pass  on  to  Minister's  Island,  where  he  settled.  Captain 
Christopher  Hatch,  a  grantee  of  Parr  Town  on  the  River  vSt.  John, 
went  into  tlie  mercantile  business  at  Campobello.  Later,  he  sold 
out  to  Lieutenant  Thomas  Henderson,  who  became  the  customs 
officer  of  the  island.  Another  grantee  of  Parr  Town,  who  settled 
temporarily  on  Campobello,  was  Nathan  P'rink,  a  native  of 
Pomfret,  Connecticut,  and  a  captain  in  the  King's  Loyal 
American  Dragoons.  It  is  recorded  by  a  historian  of  the  island 
that  many  of  the  early  inhabitants,  who  lived  along  what  is  called 
the  North  Road,  were  tories  from  New  York,  some  of  them  being 
of  Scotch  origin.  Later  on,  this  loyalist  element  appears  to  have 
been  considerably  increased  by  the  accession  of  numerous  families 
from  the  mainland,  who,  dissatisfied  with  their  locations,  either 
sold  or  abandoned  their  grants  there.  In  1S03,  the  population  of 
Campobello,  including  both  lo>'alistsand  other  settlers,  numbered 
nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  persons. - 

North  of  Campobello,  Deer  Island  had  occupants  who,  as 
previously  noted,  went  to  considerable  trouble  to  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  King  at  the  time  of  the  American  attack  upon 
Penobscot.  The  earliest  refugees  to  join  these  settlers  probably 
fled  from  Colonel  Allen's  rule  at  Machias.  Among  these,  it 
would  appear,  was  Josiah  Heney,  a  native  of  Portland,  Maine, 
w.ho  was  aided  in  making  his  escape  from  Machias  in  1777  by 
James  Brown  of  Passamaquoddy.  Later,  Heney  .sought  the  pro- 
tection of  the  post  at  Penobscot,  and  came  thence  to  Deer  Island, 

1.  Coll.  N.  li.  Hist.  Soc.  ]'.  /,  No.  3,  347-350;  Acadie)isis,]\\\y ,  1906, 
168;  ibid.,  July,  1907,  209;  Ganong,  Origins  of  the  Settlements  in  X.  /?., 
136;  Lorimer,  ///,sV.  of  Islands,  II;  Raymond,  II 'ins/ozc  Papers,  ^Sg,  4()o, 
580,    n;   Sabine,^-//;/.     Loyalists,   1847,  4S<);  St.  Croijr  Courier  series,  L/ II, 

\cifi,  xcri,  CXff. 

2.  Coll.  X.  IJ.  Hist.  Soc.,  V.  /.  No.  2,  215;  .S7.  Croix  Courier  series, 
f.XXrfff,  CXXIV;  WeUs,  Campobello,  6;  Raymond,  JVinslozv  /'apers, 
490;  Ganong,  Origins  of  the  Settlei/ients  in  X'.  B.,  67. 

35 


where  he  built  a  house  opposite  Pleasant  Point.  ^  About  the  same 
time,  John  Rolf  and  his  daughter  arrived  from  Machias.  Several 
members  of  the  Penobscot  Association  also  took  up  their  resi- 
dence on  the  island,  including  Daniel  Leemen  and  William 
Stewart,  the  latter  settling  at  Pendleton's  Passage.  Other 
loyalists  came  in  from  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  one  of  these 
being  John  Appleby,  who  located  at  Chocolate  Cove.  Both  Ap- 
pleby and  Leeman  have  descendants  now  living  on  Deer  Island. 
Another  settler  from  St.  John  was  Issaac  Richardson,  whose  name 
is  perpetuated  in  that  of  Richardsonville.  It  was  not  long  be- 
fore these  loyalist  inhabitants  were  joined  b}'  .some  of  the  fami- 
lies from  the  mainland,  who  evidently  thought  they  could  better 
their  condition  by  removing  to  Campobello.  In  1803,  this  island 
and  its  dependencies  had  a  poinilation  of  one  hundred  and  seven- 
teen. In  the  following  year,  a  .score  of  these  residents  tried  to 
establish  a  claim  to  the  lands  on  which  they  were  living.  The 
memorial  of  the.se  petitioners  states  that  they  had  been  on  Cam- 
pobello for  twenty  3"ears  (or  since  17S4),  which  would  suggest 
that  many  of  them,  if  not  all,  were  refugees  from  the  States. 
Gideon  Pendleton,  whom  we  know  to  have  been  a  loyalist  from 
Long  Lsland,  and  whose  name  appears  in  that  of  Pendleton's 
Lslaud,  was  one  of  the.se. "-^ 

The  island  just  named  had  been  granted,  no  doubt,  to  Gideon 
Pendleton,  as  other  of  the  small  islands  were  granted  to  other 
adherents  of  the  Crown.  However,  Moo.se  Island  (  now  l{a.stport) 
was  inhabited  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution  by  about  half  a  doz- 
en families,  who  had  been  more  or  less  in  sympathy  with  Great 
Britain  during  that  struggle.  It  is  not  known  how  many  out- 
side loj-ali.sts  joined  this  little  colon3^,  but  it  is  said  that  George 
Cline  (or  Klein),  a  recruiting  sergeant  during  the  War,  and 
Joseph  Ferris,  a  native  of  vStamford,  Connecticut,  and  a  captain 
in  Butler's  Rangers,  both  lived  for  a  time  on  Moo.se  Island.  The 
former  spent  the  end  of  his  days  on  Bar  Island,  and  tlie  latter, 
on  Indian  Island.  James  Maloney,  who  was  a  mariner  and  a 
grantee  of  St.   Andrews,    .settled    on    St.    Andrews    Lsland,    and 

1.  S/.  Croi.r  Courier  series^  C'X.W,  A'A/A',  C'/.\';  Loriiiier,  Ifisfory  of 
Islands,  89. 

2.  St.  Croix  Courier  series  C.VAV,    CX.\'l/\  Ganong,    Origins  of  the 
Settlenients  in  N.  B.,  6-]\  Raymond,   ]l' in  slew  Papers,  490. 


Matthew  Thornton  who  fled  to  escape  ]:)ersecution  after  the  battle 
of  Bennington,  spent  one  winter  there,  being  later  provided  with 
a  grant  as  a  member  of  the  Penobscot  Association.  Thornton 
was  a  native  of  New  Hampshire.^ 

The  population  of  the  Passamaquoddy  region  in  17H4,  accord- 
ing to  Colonel  Edward  Winslow's  muster  was  1,744  persons,  of 
whom  seven  hundred  and  ninety  were  men,  three  hundred  and 
four,  women,  and  six  hundred  and  fifty,  children. ^  The  various 
regiments  and  other  groups  represented  compri.sed  the  42nd, 
70th,  and  72nd  regiments.  Royal  Fencible  Americans,  King's 
Orange  Rangers,  Royal  Garrison  Battalion,  Tarleton's  Dragoons, 
Nova  Scotia  Volunteers,  Regiment  of  Specht  (Brunswick 
soldiers),  various  corps  at  L'Etang,  Nehemiah  Marks'  Company, 
loyalists  and  others  at  Beaver  Harbor,  Penobscot  loyalists,  and 
Ivieutenant  Colonel  Stewart  and  part}-,  besides  two  small  com- 
panies, one  in  the  District  of  Passamaquoddj^  and  the  other  on 
the  River  Magaguadavic.  As  we  have  already'  seen  at  some 
length,  most  of  these  people  w^ere  loyalists,  and  although  the 
men  had  pursued  the  most  diverse  occupations  in  their  former 
homes,  farming  engaged  the  great  majority  of  them  at  Passa- 
maquoddy. However,  at  the  time  of  the  landing  of  the  refugees 
from  Penob.scot,  lumbering  operations  were  already  in  progress 
near  the  headwaters  of  the  Scoodic  or  St.  Croix  River, on  both 
sides  of  which  a  settlement  of  fifteen  or  twenty  families  was  in 
existence.  Most  of  these  families  had  come  from  Machias,  and 
had  evidently  chosen  their  location  on  account  of  the  valuable 
timber  and  the  water  power  to  be  had  there.  At  the  mouth  of 
Dennis  Stream  they  had  built  a  sawmill.^  Thus  began  the  lum- 
ber trade  of  the  St.  Croix,  which  may  have  supplied  building 
material  to  loyalists  who  settled  farther  down  the  river.  How- 
ever, there  were  abundant  supplies  of  fine  timber  along  the  other 
large  rivers  emptying  into  Passamac^uoddy  Bay,  and  there  were 
ample  water  powers  and  excellent  harbors  at  hand.  The  new- 
comers,    appreciating    these    advantages,    established    important 

1.  .Sy.  Croix  Con  rit-y  series,   LI  I,  CXXI,  CXXIV,  XC/V,  CXI II. 

2.  [hid.,  LXl'II.  The  ficjures  given  in  the  text  are  taken  from  tlie 
original  Muster  Book,  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  \V.  (,). 
Raymond,  of  St.  John,  N.   R. 

3.  .S7.   Croi.r  Courier  series,  LII . 

37 


villages  at  St.  Stephen,  Milltown,  St.  Andrews,  St.  Patrick,  and 
St.  George's  Town,  and  erected  sawmills  at  numerous  points  of 
vantage.  Sailing  vessels  were  needed  for  the  lumber  trade,  and 
so  ship-building  became  an  important  industry-  in  ."Several  of  the 
parishes  that  were  .settled  by  the  loyalists.  By  1803,  the  Passa- 
maquoddy  District  had  no  less  than  twenty-one  sawmills,  which 
together  cut  7,700,000  feet  of  boards,  and  it  also  had  a  fleet  of 
fifty-nine  .sails,  besides  numerous  smaller  craft.  Of  the  sailing 
vessels,  St.  Andrews  Parish  alone  had  built  forty-two  since  1 785.  ^ 
The  principal  markets  for  the  lumber  exported  from  Passamaquod- 
dy  were  Nova  Scotia  and  the  British  West  Indies,  in  both  of 
which  regions  thousands  of  loyalist  refugees  were  settling  during 
this  period.  It  need  scarcel}'  be  added  that  fishing  was  an  im- 
portant occupation  of  many  of  the  .settlers  on  the  shores  and 
islands  of  Passamaquoddy  Ba}-.  The  quantit}^  of  fish  taken  in 
1803  amounted  to  9,900  quintals  and  3,000  barrels,  besides  about 
5,000  boxes  of  herring."-^ 

Meanwhile,  the  loyalists  and  their  fellow-colonists  were 
multiplying  in  numbers  despite  the  removal  of  many  from 
Pa.ssamaquoddy  to  other  places  in  New  Brunswick  or  to  the 
States.  By  1803,  the  population  of  Charlotte  County  had  reached 
2,622  persons,  or  nearly  eight  hundred  and  fifty  more  than  that 
of  the  year  1 784.  With  the  growth  in  numbers,  desirable  lots  that 
had  been  abandoned  by  the  first  grantees  were  taken  up  and  oc- 
cupied by  young  men  coming  into  maturity  who  wished  farms  of 
their  own,  and,  following  this,  new  settlements  were  made  on  the 
uplands  back  of  the  older  settlements.  In  this  way,  an  expan- 
sion seems  to  have  taken  place  up  thcvSt.  Croix,  Digdeguash,  and 
Magaguadavic.-^ 

The  coming  of  the  loj^alists  had  led  to  the  creation  of  Char- 
lotte County,  together  with  the  seven  other  counties  of  New 
Brunswick,  earh^  in  1786.  At  the  same  time,  Charlotte  County 
had  been  subdivided  into  seven  towns  or  parishes,  namely,  St. 
Stephen,  St.  David,  St.  Andrews,  St.  Patrick,  vSt.  George,  Penn- 
field,  and    the  West  Lsles.     The   act  establishing  these  divisions 

1.  Raymond,    ll'iiislou'   Papers,  489-491. 

2.  Ibid. 

3.  Ganong,  Origins  0/  the  Settlements  in  X.  />'.,  59,  61. 


had  also  declared  that  vSt.  Andrews  should  be  thereafter  the  seat 
of  the  County  of  Charlotte.  ^  lint  before  the  passage  of  this 
measure  1)\-  the  llrst  Assembly  of  the  pro\-ince,  and  e\'en  before 
New  Brunswick  had  been  made  a  separate  i)rovince,  Governor 
Parr  had  created  a  court  for  the  District  of  Passmaciuoddy  (early 
in  17S4)  by  appointing  John  Curr}-,  Philip  Bailey,  Robert  Pagan, 
and  William  CTallop  to  be  justices  of  the  peace  therein.  All  of 
these  men  were  loyalists,  and  three  of  them  were  grantees  of  vSt. 
Andrews;  while  the  fourth,  Cai)tain  Philip  Bailey,  was  a  grantee 
of  vSt.  George's.  Two  of  them  received  appointments  in  addi- 
tion to  that  of  justice  of  the  peace.  Mr.  Pagan  served  the  Crown 
as  agent  for  lands  in  New  Brunswick  and  in  looking  after  matters 
connected  with  grants  to  the  loyalists.  He  also  represented  his 
county  for  a  number  of  years  in  the  Provincial  Legislature.  Mr. 
Gallop  was  commissioned  as  first  registrar  of  deeds  for  Charlotte 
Count}',  in  March,  1786,  and  continued  in  that  oilfice  until  1789. 
Another  vSt.  Andrews  loyalist.  Colonel  Thomas  Wyer,  became 
the  first  sheriff  of  the  county,  being  appointed  in  the  spring  of 
1785,  and  serving  until  1790,  when  he  was  succeeded  b\-  his  fellow- 
townsman,  John  Dunn,  a  refugee  from  New  York,  who  held  the 
position  twelve  years.  Mr.  Dunn  also  acted  as  comptroller  of 
customs  at  St.  Andrews  for  a  long  period. - 

The  action  of  Governor  Parr  in  appointing  justices  of  the 
peace  for  the  District  of  Passamaq noddy  in  1784  is  to  be  regarded 
as  the  revival  of  an  earlier  court,  rather  than  as  the  creation  of  a 
new  tribunal.  Before  the  Revolution,  the  general  .sessions  of  the 
peace  for  the  District  had  been  held  on  the  Island  of  Campobello. 
That  they  were  resumed  there  after  the  war  is  shown  1)y  Robert 
Pagan's  statement  that  he  went  to  Campobello  to  attend  the  .ses- 
sons  in  his  capacity  as  magistrate  for  the  Count\-  of  vSunbury.-' 
A  little  later,  se.ssions  were  held  at  vSt.  Andrews,  but  whether 
there  or  on  Campobello,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  court  appears  to 
have  extended  over  all  the  islands  of  Passamacpioddy  Bay.  It 
should  be  noted,    however,   that  Grand  Manan  had  at  least  one 

1.  ^■h'ad!('//sis,  July,  i9<->7,  232. 

2.  /did.   223-225;    ("()//.  A".  /.'.  ///.sV.   Soc,     I'.  /,   No.  3,  363. 

3.  .S7.   Croix    Courier  si-rits,    L X X X !  7 .-    Canons    Evolution  of  the 
Jlnuintai  ies   of  i\\    /»' ,    2S1,  n. 

39 


resident  justice  of  the  peace  in  the  person  of  Moses  Oerrish  who, 
as  ])reviously  mentioned,  served  also  as  collector  of  customs  for 
that  island.  Joseph  Garnett,  who  died  in  St.  Andrews  in  the 
year  iSoo,  is  said  to  have  been  "New  Brunswick's  first  master  in 
Chancery  and  the  first  deputy  registrar  of  deeds  and  wills  and 
deputy  Surrogate  or  Judge  of  Probate  for  Charlotte  CountN."^ 

The  settlement  of  the  loyalists  on  Passamaquoddy  Bay  gave 
rise,  as  we  have  .seen,  to  a  dispute  over  the  western  or 
river  boundary  of  Nova  Scotia.  That  dispute  was  to  re- 
main undecided  until  1798.  By  the  treaty  of  1783,  the 
boundary  had  been  fixed  at  the  vSt.  Croix;  but  the  topographical 
location  of  the  true  St.  Croix  was  as  yet  unknown.  However, 
the  Nova  Scotia  authorities  had  acted  on  the  assumption  that  the 
Scoodic  was  the  St.  Croix  by  settling  large  numbers  of  loyalists 
on  its  eastern  bank.  John  Allan  had  called  the  attention  of  the 
Massachusetts  government  to  the  refugee  settlements  at  St.  An- 
drews in  August  and  again  in  September,  1783.  Thereupon,  the 
Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives  had  directed  Governor 
Hancock  (October  23)  to  obtain  information  regarding  the  al- 
leged encroachments,  and  communicate  the  same  to  Congress. 
This  was  done  at  once,  and  Congress  replied  (Januar}^  26,  1784,) 
with  a  recommendation  that  representations  should  be  made  to 
Nova  Scotia,  if  the  results  of  an  investigation  warranted  it.  The 
advice  was  followed,  a  committee  was  sent  to  Passamaquoddy, 
and  on  its  return  reported  that  the  Magaguadavic,  lying  about 
three  leagues  east  of  St.  Andrews,  was  the  original  St.  Croix. 
On  the  basis  of  this  report,  Governor  Hancock  wrote  to  Governor 
Parr,  November  12,  1784,  requesting  him  to  recall  such  of  the 
King's  subjects  as  had  "planted  themselves"  within  the  Com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts.  The  reply  to  this  communication 
came  from  Thomas  Carleton,  governor  of  New  Brunswick,  the 
province  that  had  been  recently  erected  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Bay  of  Fundy:  Carleton  wrote  that  "the  Great  St.  Croix,  called 
Schoodick  by  the  Indians,"  was  considered  by  the  Court  of 
Great  Britain  as  the  river  intended  by  the  treat\-  of  1783  to  form 
part  of  the  boundary.  President  Washington  urged  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  matter  in  a  special  message  to  Congress  in  1790:  but 

I.     Aca(/!r>!sis,  ]u]y,  1907,  210,  226,  227. 

40 


nothing  was  done  until  Jay's  treaty  was  signed  four  years  later, 
a  clause  in  this  instrument  providing  for  the  reference  of  the 
question  to  the  final  decision  of  commissioners.' 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  first  and  last,  not  less  than 
four  prominent  loj-alists  took  part  in  the  important  labors  of  the 
board  of  commissioners  thus  authorized.  Thomas  Barclay,  a 
graduate  of  Columbia  College  and  a  cajitain  in  the  Loyal  Ameri- 
can Regiment,  who  had  fled  to  Nova  Scotia  at  the  close  of  the 
Revolution,  was  named  commissioner  for  Great  Britain.  His 
American  colleague  was  David  Howell,  an  eminent  lawyer  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  they  together  designated  Egbert  Benson,  a 
distinguished  jurist  of  New  York,  as  the  third  member  of  their 
board.  Edward  Winslow^  of  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  who  had 
served  as  muster-master  general  of  the  loyalist  forces  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  and  then  had  taken  up  his  residence  in  New 
Brunswick,  became  secretary  of  the  commission.  Each  govern- 
ment had  an  agent  to  prepare  and  present  its  case  before  the 
board.  The  British  agent  was  Ward  Chipman  of  Massachusetts, 
a  graduate  of  Harvard  college  and  deputy  muster-master  general 
under  Winslow.  In  New  Brunswick,  whither  Chipman  removed 
after  the  war,  he  attained  the  highest  honors,  serving  as  member 
of  the  House  of  Assembly,  advocate  general,  solicitor  general,  etc. 
The  agent  for  the  United  States  was  James  Sullivan,  one  of  the 
ablest  members  of  the  bar  in  Massachusetts  at  that  time.  The 
identification  of  Bone  (now  Dochet )  Island  with  the  Isle  of  St. 
Croix  of  Champlain,  on  which  the  identification  of  the  River  St. 
Croix  largely  depended,  was  accomplished  by  Robert  Pagan,  one  of 
the  loyalist  grantees  of  St.  Andrews.  After  a  series  of  meetings  held 
at  various  times  from  August  to  October  26,  1798,  the  commission 
rendered  the  verdict  that  the  Scoodic  was  in  fact  the  River  St. 
Croix  intended  by  the  treaty  of  17S3.  The  source  of  the  stream, 
thus  declared  to  be  the  boundary  between  Maine  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, was  decided  to  be  the  eastern  or  Chiputneticook  branch  of 
the  St.  Croix.  This  was  undoubtedly  a  fair  line  of  division,  in- 
asmuch as  the  St.  Croix  had  been  the  old  eastern  boundary  of 
Massachusetts  Baj'.^ 

1.  Gallons,  Evol.of  the  Boundaries  of  X.  /?., 241-254,  and  the  autlior- 
ities  there  cited;  Rives,  Conrspondciuc  of  Thomas  Barclay,  45.  #• 

2.  {VAWon^,  EvoL  of  thr    flouitdarics  of  N.B.,    254-259;  Sabine,    Am- 
Loyalists,  144,  711,  208;  Stark,  Loyalists  of  Mass.,  436,  432. 

41 


In  i7'S4  and  1785,  the  question  of  ownership  of  some  of  the 
islands  in  Passamaquoddy  Bay  became  a  point  of  contention  be- 
tween the  British  and  American  governments.  The  loyahsts 
and  other  British  settlers  of  that  period  laid  claim  to  all  of  these 
islands,  and  were  supported  therein  by  the  New  Brunswick  au- 
thorities. Nevertheless,  the  Ha.stern  Lands  committee  of  the 
Mas.sachusetts  House  of  Representatives  had  Moose,  Dudley, 
and  Frederick  islands  surveyed  (in  1784),  and  sold  Dudley  Is- 
land to  John  Allan,  who  settled  there  and  made  some  improve- 
ments. At  about  the  same  time,  the  same  committee  was  author- 
ized to  make  sale  of  Grand  Manan  and  the  small  islands  adjacent, 
despite  the  fact  that  the  government  of  Nova  Scotia  had  already 
granted  a  license  (December  30,  1783,)  to  Moses  Gerrish  and  his 
associates  to  occupy  Grand  Manan.  In  October,  1785,  Congress 
passed  a  resolution  instructing  the  American  minister  in  London 
to  attempt  an  adjustment  of  these  matters,  or  failing  that,  by 
commissioners  appointed  by  the  two  governments.  Ignoring 
both  the  resolution  of  Congress  and  the  operations  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts committee,  the  Assembly  of  New  Brunswick  enacted  a 
law  (January  3,  1786, )  dividing  the  province  into  counties  and 
parishes,  in  which  the  Parish  of  West  Isles  in  Charlotte  County 
was  declared  to  comprise  Deer  Island,  Carapobello,  Grand  Manan, 
and  Moose,  Frederick,  and  Dudley  islands,  with  all  the  lesser  islands 
contiguous  to  them.  Several  3'ears  later  (that  is,  in  1791),  Mas- 
sachusetts played  the  next  card  by  causing  Moose  Island  to  be 
divided  into  lots  and  granting  these  to  the  occupants.  When 
the  boundary  question  was  taken  up  by  the  St.  Croix  commi.ssion, 
the  contention  over  the  islands  was  wisely  excluded  from  the 
discussion  by  the  explicit  instructions  of  the  British  ministry. 
The  next  step  took  the  form  of  negotiations,  which  were  con- 
cluded in  1803  by  a  convention  or  agreement  declaring  Deer 
Island  and  Camphbello,  with  the  small  islands  lying  to  the  north 
and  east,  to  l)e  under  the  jurisdiction  of  New  Brunswick,  the 
others  to  the  south  and  westward  being  declared  subject  to  Mass- 
achuettes.  vStrangely  enough.  Grand  Manan  was  not  men- 
tioned.^ 

I.      Gaiioui;,   ICi'ol.    of  thr    J,\)in!(/<nifs    of   X.    />.,    278-287,     ami     the 
authorities  tlifie  riled;   .  Icadicitsis.  July.    i^K),    168. 

42 


In  the  War  of  1812,  Moose  Island  was  seized  by  the  British, 
and  was  permitted  to  remain  in  their  possession  by  the  treat}-  of 
Ghent  until  its  title  could  be  determined.  The  fourth  article  of 
this  treaty  provided  for  a  commission  of  two  members  to  settle 
the  island  question.  Thus,  the  suggestion  first  made  b}-  the 
American  Congress  in  1785  was  finally  adopted.  Two  of  the 
loyalists  who  had  shared  in  the  work  of  the  boundary  commission, 
were  assigned  tasks  of  like  kind  in  connection  with  this  one. 
They  were  Thomas  Barclay  and  Ward  Chipman,  representing  Great 
Britain  as  commissioner  and  agent,  respectively.  The  United 
vStates  was  represented  b\-  John  Holmes,  a  prominent  citizen 
of  Maine,  as  commissioner,  and  James  T.  Austin,  a  leading 
law3-er  of  Massachusetts,  as  agent.  The  memorial  of  the  British 
agent  rei)eated  the  old  claim  of  Nova  Scotia  to  all  the  islands  of 
Passamaquoddy  Bay,  not  forgetting  Grand  Manan,  on  the  basis 
of  their  inclusion  within  the  original  limits  of  that  province,  the 
extent  of  its  jurisdiction,  the  exercise  of  its  civil  authorit}',  etc 
The  counter-claim  of  the  United  States  was  also  heard,  and  the 
rejoinders  on  both  sides.  Finally,  on  November  29,  18 17,  the 
commis-sioners  gave  their  decision,  namely  that  Moose,  Dudley, 
and  Frederick  islands  belong  to  the  United  States,  and  that  all 
the  other  islands,  including  Grand  Manan,  belong  to  his  Britannic 
Majesty,  "in  conformity  with  the  true  intent  of  the  second 
article  of  the  treaty  of  1783."  As  both  governments  accepted 
this  decision,  the  dispute  over  the  islands  was  closed.^  Thus, 
the  loyalist  settlers,  whether  on  or  off  the  mainland  of  Passama- 
quoddy Baj',  were  finally  left  to  enjo)'  in  peace  the  lands  granted 
them  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution. 

I     Ganong,  Evol.  of  the  Boundaries  of  N.    B,,  287-290. 


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